I won’t contest this election, says Mukesh Sahani; fields brother from Gaura Bauram

Mukesh Sahani said he wanted to become the deputy chief minister after the Grand Alliance comes to power in Bihar

PATNA: Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) founder Mukesh Sahani on Friday announced that he will not contest the assembly election to enable him to campaign for the party candidates and the Opposition’s Grand Alliance coalition in Bihar.

A former Bollywood set designer before he founded VIP in 2018, Mukesh Sahani said he was not keen to become a member of the Rajya Sabha (Facebook:sonofmallah)

Sahani, who was expected to file his nomination from the Gaura Bauram seat in Darbhanga, named his brother, Santosh Sahani, as the party’s nominee for the seat. The VIP was allotted 15 seats in a last-minute deal with the opposition coalition in Bihar comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and the Left parties.

Sahani said he had opted to field his brother from the Gaura Bauram seat so that he wasn’t tied down to one seat.

“I have opted not to contest polls this time. I will campaign for the party’s nominees and also for the Grand Alliance,” Sahani told reporters in Darbhanga.

There is speculation that Sahani, who lost the 2020 assembly election from the Simri Bakhtiarpur seat to the RJD - he had partnered with the NDA in that election -- hopes to become a legislative council member with support from other parties in the coalition.

VIP spokesperson Dev Jyoti said the party had been told that VIP would get two MLC seats and a Rajya Sabha seat as part of the seat-sharing deal. “Yes, a seat deal has been stitched with RJD-Congress and other partners in the INDIA bloc or Mahagatbandhan in Bihar. We will contest 15 seats in alliance with other partners,” he said.

Sahani said he wasn’t keen on going to the Rajya Sabha. “I want to become the deputy chief minister after the Grand Alliance comes to power in Bihar,” he told reporters, explaining his decision to step aside.

But it is not clear how the situation would pan out in Gaura Bauram where a local RJD leader Afzal Ali Khan also filed his nomination papers on Friday. Khan, who was allotted the party symbol by the RJD on Thursday much before the agreement with Mukesh Sahani was sealed, said he had submitted his nomination papers with the election symbol given by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in Patna on Thursday.

“I have affixed the symbol given by Lalu Prasad ji and Tejashwi Yadav ji and filed my nomination. I don’t need to clarify anything further whether I am contesting as an independent or otherwise. If I get the RJD symbol, I will contest as the RJD candidate; if not, I will contest as an independent,” he said after filing his nomination.

A RJD leader said Afzal Ali would be persuaded to withdraw from the contest as the seat has gone to the VIP. “There is still time for withdrawal. A final picture would emerge soon,” said a senior RJD leader.

Apart from Gaura Bauram, the other seats that are learnt to have gone to the VIP are Bhabua, Aurai, Gopalpur and Darbhanga (urban).