Patna: Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will contest from the high-profile Patna Sahib seat, replacing Shatrughan Sinha, the BJP-JDU led NDA announced on Saturday as it released the list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls from Bihar.
As speculated, Sinha was denied the Patna Sahib ticket. Sinha has become a bitter critic of the party leadership and slammed the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His criticism of the Prime Minister has only grown sharper in recent times. Reports suggest he will soon join the Congress and contest from the same seat.
Candidates for 39 Lok Sabha seats were announced on the day. The BJP has given tickets to most of its sitting MPs, including Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav (Patliputra), Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Saran) and Raj Kumar Singh (Arrah). One of the noticeable exceptions was sitting MP Shahnawaz Hussain. He was replaced by Giriraj Singh for the Begusarai constituency. Interestingly, Hussain is a member of the BJP’s central election committee.
Giriraj Singh, who won from Nawada in 2014, has been shifted to Begusarai although he had earlier expressed his desire to contest from his old seat.
Singh might lock horns with former Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union’s president and prominent face of young Left politics, Kanhaiya Kumar. Though the Mahagathbandhan has denied him a ticket, reports suggest that hectic parleys were on between alliance partners to field him from Begusarai constituency as a CPI candidate. Kanhaiya has been extensively campaigning in the region and had also declared his candidature from the constituency in his individual capacity.
During the 2014 elections, the CPI had polled 17 per cent votes from this constituency. According to political observers, the CPI stands a good chance of capturing this seat if Kanhaiya is fielded from there.
The BJP and the Janata Dal (United) will contest 17 seats each and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) six seats in Bihar.
Here is the full list of Bihar NDA candidates for Lok Sabha election 2019:
BJP
Pataliputra – Ram Kirpal Yadav, sitting MP
Patna Sahib – Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Law Minister
Arrah – Raj Kumar Singh (RK Singh), sitting MP
Purvi Champaran – Radha Mohan Singh, sitting MP and Union Agriculture Minister
Paschim Champaran – Sanjay Jaiswal, sitting MP
Sheohar – Rama Devi, sitting MP
Madhubani – Ashok Kumar Yadav, son of sitting MP Hukmdev Narayan Yadav
Darbhanga – Gopalji Thakur. Sitting BJP MP Kirti Jha Azad rebelled and joined Congress
Muzaffarpur – Ajay Nishad, sitting MP
Maharajganj – Janardan Singh Sigriwal, sitting MP
Saran – Rajiv Pratap Rudy, sitting MP
Buxar – Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, sitting MP
Sasaram (SC) – Cheddi Paswan, sitting MP
Begusarai – Giriraj Singh, won from Nawada in 2014
Araria – Pradeep Singh
Aurangabad – Sushil Kumar Singh, sitting MP
Ujiyarpur – Nityanand Rai, sitting MP and BJP Bihar president
JDU
Purnia – Santosh Kumar Kushwaha, sitting MP
Madhepura – Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Bihar minister
Supaul – Dilkeshwar Kamat
Kishanganj – Mahmood Ashraf
Katihar – Dulalchand Goswami
Siwan – Kavita Singh
Balmiki Nagar – Baidyanath Mahto
Jhanjharpur – Ram Preet Mandal
Sitamarhi – Dr Barun Kumar
Gaya (SC) – Vijay Kumar Manjhi
Gopalganj (SC) – Dr Alok Suman
Munger – Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, close aide of Nitish Kumar and Bihar Water Resources Minister
Banka – Giridhari Yadav
Bhagalpur – Ajay Kumar Mandal
Nalanda – Kaushalendra Kumar, sitting MP
Karakat – Mahabali Singh
Jahanabad – Chandeshwar Prasad Chandrawanshi
LJP
Hajipur (SC) – Pashupati Kumar Paras, LJP Bihar chief and Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother
Vaishali – Beena Devi, wife of JDU MLC Dinesh Kumar Singh
Samastipur (SC) – Ram Chandra Paswan, Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother
Jamui (SC) – Chirag Paswan, Ram Vilas Paswan’s son
Nawada – Chandan Kumar
Khagadia – Yet to announce. Choudhary Mahboob Ali Kaiser is the sitting MP
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