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Bihar polls: BJP releases second list of 99 candidates
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its second list of 99 candidates on Saturday, accommodating its allies, senior leaders' kin and several rebels of the Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United).
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its second list of 99 candidates, accommodating its allies, kin of senior leaders and several JD(U) rebels.
The list also saw 14 sitting MLAs being dropped, taking the tally of those sidelined to 19 in the 148 seats declared so far.
Releasing the list, Union minister JP Nadda said the party had tried to honour its commitment to its allies, the youth and women.
There had been immense pressure on the BJP to accommodate relatives of top leaders of its Bihar unit, key among them being former Union minister for health Dr CP Thakur, besides sons of late MP Umashankar Singh and Ashwini Choubey, present Buxar MP.
Also accommodated were Gyanendra Singh Gyanoo, legislator from Fatuha and a former close confidant of CM Nitish Kumar.
The party also made space for Satish Kumar, sitting JD(U) legislator, who joined BJP on Saturday. He was denied a ticket by his party in favour of Lalu Prasad’s son Tejaswi Yadav.
The second list accommodated five candidates of Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Party (HAM), including Nitish Mishra, a former minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.
However, the party found it difficult to accommodate Sumit Singh, another HAM candidate and HAM leader Narendra Singh’s son from Jamui area, the parliamentary constituency of LJP parliamentary board chairman Chirag Paswan.
Interestingly, the party accommodated CM Gupta, a candidate who was ignored in the last polls but stood as an independent from Chhapra and stole the limelight. With this, the BJP strengthened itself in Lalu Prasad’s backyard.
The profile of the candidates matched the JD(U)’s choice of candidates in fielding more EBCs, pointing to the fact that the economically backward sections would be the biggest determinant in the polls.
