Updated: October 7, 2020 9:03:30 pm
JD (U) National President and Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar presents membership sheet to former DGP Gupteshwar Pandey
Janata Dal United (JD-U) headed by Nitish Kumar on Wednesday published the list of its 115 candidates for the upcoming Bihar elections, featuring RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s ‘samdhi’ Chandrika Roy from his traditional seat in the Parsa assembly despite the fact that former DGP Gupteshwar Pandey could not make the cut.
Six times MLA Chandrika Rai, father of Tej Pratap Yadav’s estranged wife, Aishwarya, had joined JD (U) in August after leaving RJD earlier this year, calling it a “party of capitalists.” Rai, who served as Transport Minister in the Grand Alliance government in Bihar, had unsuccessfully challenged Saran’s 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Former RJD legislators Maheshwar Prasad Yadav, Ashok Kumar, Jai Vardhan Yadav and Birendra Kumar Singh, who joined JD (U) in the past two months, were nominated from the constituencies of Gaighat, Sasaram, Paliganj and Teghra respectively .
However, what has attracted attention is the name of Gupteshwar Pandey, who took VRS last month and then joined JD (U) in the presence of the chief minister himself, who disappeared from the list of candidates. The 1987 IPS officer, 59, was vying for a Buxar or Shahpur match ticket for the state polls.
From standing up to the opposition for questioning the Bihar government’s handling of a triple murder case in Gopalganj to becoming the face of the state’s persecution of the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case, Pandey had made her political leanings clear in July and seemed ready to go. the poll fray. However, it remains to be seen if Pandey receives a ticket to the Lok Sabha bypoll in Valmiki Nagar.
Buxar, Pandey’s hometown, and Shahpur have gone to BJP under the shared seating formula. The JD (U) won two seats in Buxar, Dumraon and Rajpur district (SC reserved), where it appointed Anjum Ara and Minister of State Santosh Kumar Nirala respectively.
Interestingly, Pandey’s former police colleague Sunil Kumar, who recently retired as Director General (Interior Guards), has been nominated by the JD (U) of Bhore (reserved seat) in Gopalganj district.
The outgoing assembly president, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, will compete from his traditional Saraiganj headquarters in the Samastipur district.
Ministers Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Ram Sevak Singh, Shrawan Kumar, Jai Kumar Singh, Bima Bharti, Madan Sahni,
Khursheed Firoz Ahmad, Shailesh Kumar and Krishnandan Prasad Varma have recurred from their old constituencies.
Jaivardhan Singh Yadav, grandson of the former Bihar minister and a powerful Yadav leader, Ramlakhan Singh Yadav, received a ticket from his former Paliganj seat, while Faraz Fatmi was appointed from the rural seat of Darbhanga. They had both left RJD and joined JD (U) recently.
The two members of the RLSP, Lallan Paswan and Sudhansu Sekhar, who had crossed into Kumar’s group were also
renamed. HAM has already appointed its seven-seat candidates, which it obtained from the JD (U) quota of 122.
The BJP has already published a list of 27 candidates for the first phase of voting in Bihar on October 28. Shooter Shreyasi Singh, daughter of former Union Minister Digvijay Singh, is the BJP candidate for Jamui.
Meanwhile, the RJD has also published its list of 42 candidates for the first phase of the elections. Congress also released a list of 21 candidates.
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