Following their father’s footstep, two sons of RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday entered the electoral politics as their names were announced by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the ensuing five-phase Assembly polls in Bihar.
Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav will contest from Yadav-dominated Mahua and Raghopur seats respectively as per the list of candidates for the ‘Grand Secular Alliance’ announced by Kumar.
Both the seats in Vaishali district were with the JD(U) in 2010. Apprehending the reverse, Mahua MLA Ravindra Rai has joined HAM (S) and is nominated by that party while at Raghopur, Satish Kumar, who had defeated Rabri Devi in 2010, has joined BJP which has fielded him from the seat.
RJD has chosen Subedar Singh against former chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM-S) leader Jitan Ram
Manjhi at Makhdumpur (SC). At Imamganj (SC), the Speaker of outgoing Assembly Uday Narayan Chaudhary has been retained to take on Manjhi who is contesting from two seats.
A total of 25 women candidates have been given tickets forming 10 per cent of the total seats. As per seat sharing, JD(U) and RJD are contesting for 101 seats each while Congress on 41 seats. Kumar said name of the candidate for Rajgir (SC) seat would be declared later.
Immediately after the list of candidates was announced, a large number of people protested at the JD(U) office complaining denial of tickets to persons of their choice. Kumar and other leaders were present in the party office while slogan shouting was going on outside the gate.