The BJP announced its second list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Bihar, with a declaration of 99 names covering almost phases of the poll with several tickets given to sons and relatives of senior leaders. This, even as rebellion continued to stir in both alliances as more and more candidates were declared.
Union Minister for Health J. P. Nadda, a member of the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the party which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is headed by party president Amit Shah, said: that “all communities and professions have been adequately represented in the list, and 60 per cent of the seats have been given to young candidates.” With these 99 seats, the total number of seats declared by the BJP goes up to 142, with just 18 seats left to declare.
Several fledgling dynasts were also given tickets in this list, including Nitish Mishra, son of former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, Vivek Thakur, son of former Union Minister C. P. Thakur and Arijit Shaswat son of Lok Sabha MP Ashwini Choubey.
Ajay Pratap Singh, son of Janata Dal (U) rebel MLA Narendra Singh, wrested the Jamui candidacy for himself in the teeth of much opposition from the Lok Janshakti Party. The other contentious seat of Chikai is still to be declared.
Meanwhile, rebellions were growing on both sides of the political divide, the BJP-led NDA and the Janata Dal (U)-Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) led ‘mahagathbandhan.’ Satish Kumar Rai, former JD(U) MLA who had defeated former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi from the Raghpur seat, joined the BJP and will be given that seat again. Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan faced rebellion from within his family after his son-in-law burnt his father-in-law’s effigy in Bihar on being denied a ticket.
