Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, his brother and son are among the six candidates whose names were announced on Saturday for the Lok Sabha elections. The party will contest seven seats in alliance with the BJP in Bihar.
Having returned to the NDA, Mr. Paswan will be seeking to reclaim the Hajipur (SC) seat, which was wrested from him by the JD(U)’s Ram Sundar Das.
His brother Ramchander Paswan will be the party’s candidate from Samastipur, a reserved constituency.
Debut from Jamui
Mr. Paswan’s son Chirag will be making his electoral debut and will contest from the Jamui (SC) seat, taking on RJD’s Sudhanshu Kumar Bhaskar.
The LJP has fielded strongman Rama Kishore Singh against former Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the RJD, while another muscleman Surajbhan Singh’s wife Beena Devi will take on journalist-turned-politician Pragati Mehta, also of the RJD, in Munger.
Dalit Sena leader Satyanand Sharma has been fielded from Nalanda, for which the Congress is yet to announce its candidate.
The LJP has kept its decision on the Khagaria seat in abeyance. Khagaria is the native place of Mr. Paswan though Hajipur is his political arena.
Significantly, Mr. Paswan has not accommodated minorities though he had promised to make one of them the Chief Minister should his party come to power in the State.
Mr. Chirag Paswan said he had been telling his father for more than two years to break away from the RJD and the Congress as they were “treating us like a football.” BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, on the other hand, stood for youth and development, he said.
The JD(U) is yet to announce its list of candidates for Bihar. The BJP, too, is taking its time because of internal bickering.
