NDA names candidates for 39 LS seats in Bihar

Bihar's ruling NDA on Saturday announced candidates for 39 out of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The lone seat for which a candidate was not announced was Khagaria.

The announcement was made at a joint press conference addressed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state-in-charge Bhupinder Yadav here in the presence of leaders from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

The BJP has dropped actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha from his Patna Sahib seat and instead fielded Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in his place.

Sinha won the seat in 2014.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan will not contest from Hajipur seat, the party has fielded Paswan's younger brother Pasupati Kumar Paras, a Bihar Minister and state LJP president, in his place.

Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag will contest from Jamui, while another brother Ram Chandra Paswan is being fielded from the Samastipur seat that he won in 2014.

The BJP has shifted its firebrand leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh from Nawada to Begusarai. Nawada went to the LJP under the seat sharing formula.

"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, were given tickets," Yadav said.

Only one Muslim candidate figures in the NDA list. The JD-U has fielded Mahmood Ashraf from Kishanganj.

The NDA had earlier officially announced the seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha elections.

According to the agreement, the JD-U and BJP will contest 17 seats each and the LJP the rest of the 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 the 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, the BJP won 22 seats, the LJP six and the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) three.

The RLSP has 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 won only two seats -- Purnea and Nawada.

--IANS

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