Elections 2019: NDA Declares 39 of 40 Candidates in Bihar

Patna: Bihar's ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Saturday declared the names of candidate of 39 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. No name has been announced for the Khagaria seat. 

According to list released here, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to field senior leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Saheb seat in place of sitting party MP Shatrughan Sinha.

"Ravi Shankar Prasad will be party candidate from Patna Saheb. Party has denied ticket to Shatrughan Sinha for his anti-party activities", BJP state president Nityaband Rai told Newsclick here. Rai will contest from Ujiyarpur seat that he won in 2014.

All the Union Ministers from BJP, including Radha Mohan Singh from Motihari, Ram Kirpal Yadav from Patliputra, Ashwani Choubey from Buxar, R K Singh from Ara, have been given tickets to contest polls.

However, the party has shifted Union Minister Giriraj Singh from the Nawada seat to Begusarai. Nawada has been given to party ally, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) under the seat sharing formula.  Also, Ashok Yadav, son of Hukum Deo Yadav, is being fielded in his place from the Madhubani seat.

However, BJP has denied a ticket to former Union Minister, Shahnawaz Hussain.

LJP has decided to field Pasupati Kumar Paras, a Bihar Minister and state LJP president in place of  party chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Last month, Paswan had announced that he would not contest from Hajipur, which  he represented for over three decades. His son, Chirag, will contest from Jamui that he won in 2014. 

Paswan’s brother, Ram Chandra Paswan, will contest from Samastipur seat that he won last time. 
 

Only One Muslim Candidate

The NDA list of candidates in Bihar has only one Muslim name -- Janata Dal (United)’s Mahmood Ashraf from Kishanganj.

According to the NDA seat-sharing agreement announced earlier, the JD(U) and BJP will contest 17 seats each and the LJP, the rest of six seats. 

The JD (U) is contesting Valmikinagar, Sitamarhi, Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnea, Madhepura, Bhagalpur, Gopalganj, Banka, Munger, Nalanda, Gaya, Jehanabad, Siwan and Karakat parliamentary seats. 

The BJP is contesting West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Madhubani, Araria, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Maharajganj, Saran, Ujiyarpur, Begusarai, Sasaram, Aurangabad, Buxar, Ara, Patna Saheb and Patliputra constituencies. 

The LJP is contesting Vaishali, Hajipur, Jamui, Khagaria, Samastipur and Nawada seats. 

The BJP has ceded to the JD-U five seats -- Valmikinagar, Gaya, Siwan, Gopalganj and Jhanjharpur -- that it won in 2014. 

The BJP-led NDA won 31 of the 40 seats in the state in 2014. Of this, BJP won 22 seats, LJP six and the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) three. The RLSP has now joined the Opposition Grand Alliance this time. 

The JD-U, not part of the NDA then, had contested the 2014 elections on its own and could win only two seats -- Purnea and Nawada.