In the wake of the Bihar Assembly elections, the JD-U on Wednesday announced the names of candidates contesting all its 115 seats. In a press conference held at the party office in Patna, party state president Vashisht Narayan Singh said on the occasion that the JD-U will contest on 115 seats and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) will fight the election on seven seats.
The JD-U has fielded Veena Bharti from Triveniganj seat of Supaul, Shagufta Alam from Araria, Beema Bharti from Rupauli in Purnia and Lacey Singh from Dhamdaha seat in Purnia. JDU has fielded Narendra Narayan Yadav from Alamnagar in Madhepura, Ramesh Rishidev from Sinhareshwar, Ratnesh Sada from Sonvarsha, Maheshwar Prasad Yadav from Gaighat in Muzaffarpur and Madan Sahni from Bahadurpur in Darbhanga.
The ruling party has fielded Randhir Kumar Soni from Sheikhpura seat, Harinarayan Singh from Harnaut in Nalanda and Krishna Murari Sharan alias Prem Mukhiya from Hilsa. Vashistha Singh will contest from Kargahar seat of Sasaram on JDU ticket. At the same time, the JDU has made Krishnanandan Prasad Verma its candidate from Jehanabad.
The surprising name in the list is the name of former minister Manju Verma, who was given the ticket again by Nitish Kumar. In the Muzaffarpur Shelter Home case, Nitish Kumar insisted upon the resignation and the Social Welfare Minister had resigned. The JD-U had suspended Manju Verma from the party and yet the ticket has been given again from Cheria Bariarpur.
What is significant is that according to the agreement regarding seat distribution in the JD-U-BJP alliance, the former had 122 seats in its account. Of these, the JD-U gave 7 seats from its quota to Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party HAM. The JD-U has fielded candidates for 115 seats. The BJP got 121 seats out of 243.The BJP has given the Vikas Insan Party (VIP) 11 seats out of its quota seats.
The BJP will field its candidates in 110 seats. The BJP had announced its candidates in 27 seats out of 110 of its quota a day earlier. The nomination process for these seats is going on. In the first phase, votes will be cast on 28 October.
State president Vashisht Narayan Singh claimed that JD-U national presidentcum-Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be the next CM of Bihar. He said that Nitish Kumar has been very serious about development in Bihar the result of which can be seen clearly in the state today. He said that electricity has been made available throughout Bihar due to his unending efforts. Due to the development of roads, it has become very easy to go from one place to another in the entire state