Council polls: Congress names nominees for eight out of 24 seats going to vote
The Congress has identified and named candidates for eight out of the 24 Bihar Legislative Council seats due for election in March-April and has asked them to start campaigning, a party leader said, adding that an official announcement will be made later.
The Congress has identified and named candidates for eight out of the 24 Bihar Legislative Council seats due for election in March-April and has asked them to start campaigning, a party leader said, adding that an official announcement will be made later.
All 24 seats going to vote are from the quota of local bodies, which means the electorate consists only of elected representatives of panchayats, rural and urban.
The decision comes days after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) announced candidates for 20 seats while ruling out any seat sharing arrangement with Congress.
“We have been freed from decades of coalition compulsions that took a heavy toll on the organisation at the grassroots level. Nominees for the rest 16 seats, most of them from Yadav and Muslim communities, would be announced once the poll schedule is declared,” said Rajesh Rathore, media in-charge of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) .
Though RJD had ruled out any tie-up with Congress in Bihar, it had deferred announcement of its candidates for three Council seats —Purnia, Samastipur and Nawada — which had fuelled speculation that Congress might relent again and go along with RJD by sacrificing more seats. The Lalu Yadav-led party had left Bhagalpur seat for the CPI.
RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari said the Congress decision would hardly impact prospects of RJD nominees. “We will announce rest of our candidates very soon,” he said.
The RJD had already declared candidates for 20 seats, leaving Bhagalpur for the CPI nominees under the alliance with left parties.
The eight candidates named by Congress are: Sunil Kumar Yadav (Katihar), Mohammad Affaq Ahmad (West Champaran), Subodh Mandal (Madhubani), Rajiv Kumar (Begusarai), Noori Beghum (Sitamarhi), Ashok Kumar Singh (Siwan), Ajay Kumar Yadav (Muzaffarpur) and Sushant Kumar Singh (Saran).