The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Wednesday fielded Sunil Kumar Pintu from the Sitamarhi Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, hours after its candidate Dr Varun Kumar returned the party symbol refusing to contest the elections.
A four-time BJP MLA and former Minister in the previous Nitish Kumar government, Pintu's name for the Sitamarhi seat was announced after he was hurriedly made to join the JD-U.
The Sitamarhi seat has been allotted to the JD-U in the NDA seat-sharing arrangement. Pintu has been an MLA from Sitamarhi twice.
According to JD-U leaders, Varun Kumar met JD-U President and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar earlier in the day and expressed his inability to contest the polls.
He informed the party that since neither the leaders of the JD-U nor its ally BJP were giving him any importance or supporting him in his campaign, he wanted to return the party symbol before the filing of the nominations, they said.
Pintu said he was happy that Nitish Kumar had shown faith in him and assured that the NDA would win the Sitamarhi seat.
As per the NDA's seat-sharing formula, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the JD-U will contest on 17 seats each in Bihar, leaving 6 seats for the Lok Jantantrik Party (LJP).
Sitamarhi will go to the polls on May 6.
--IANS
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