BJP ally RLSP on Monday announced the names of its candidates for 17 seats in the Bihar Assembly polls, asserting that its nominees did not owe their tickets to family ties at a time when another NDA constituent LJP has come in for criticism for its family politics.
Underscoring the persisting differences among NDA parties over conflicting claims on a few seats, RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha also protested against BJP for keeping him in “dark” about putting up its candidate from a seat it had considered allotting to his party and said he would take it up with its chief Amit Shah.
The RLSP will contest on 23 seats and is likely to come out with the names of six more candidates in a few days.
In a veiled dig at other NDA partners, RLSP’s chief general secretary Shivraj Singh said all his party candidates were common workers without having any family link to top party leaders or any criminal background.
The LJP meanwhile today announced candidates for nine seats for Bihar polls, fielding former MP and strongman Kaali Pandey from Kuchaykot and Vijay Singh from Chakai Assembly seat over which it was at loggerheads with Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM.
LJP candidates
Announcing the second list of candidates, LJP parliamentary board chairman Chirag Paswan said the selection of candidates for first phase of polls on October 12 has been completed for which the date of filing nomination ends on Wednesday.
With names of nine candidates announced today of which six will will contest in the first phase, LJP has announced candidates for a total of 21 seats out of 40, which was allotted under the seat sharing of NDA announced a last week.
The Congress has finalised candidates for around 15 of the 41 Assembly seats. The party is likely to release its first list of candidates for at least nine seats tonight or tomorrow morning. The decisions were taken after back-to-back meetings.