Prakash Jha gets JD-U ticket; Sharad Yadav to contest Madhepura

Ending speculation, Janata Dal-United Chief Sharad Yadav has been re-nominated from Madhepura as the party released the second list of 32 candidates for Lok Sabha election in Bihar.

Controversial MLA Manoranjan Singh Dhumal, who faced many criminal cases, has been fielded from Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat, while noted film director turned politician Prakash Jha has been fielded from West Champaran.

Currently, the Maharajganj seat is being represented by Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Prabhunath Singh, who had defeated senior JD-U leader P K Shahi in a Lok Sabha by-election in June last year. Prabhunath Singh was earlier with JD-U and had defected to RJD, criticising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Delhi JD-U chief Sabir Ali has been fielded from Shivhar and former JD-U chief of Bihar Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan has been nominated from Munger.

There was earlier a talk that the state unit of the party wanted Yadav to contest from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's strong-hold Nalanda as there was a view that the going could be tough for the JD-U chief this time in Madhepura since RJD has fielded Pappu Yadav alias Rajesh Ranjan from there.

The party has re-nominated Ranjan Prasad Yadav from Pataliputra, where RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Yadav is locked in a fight with BJP candidate Ram Kripal Yadav, a former RJD leader who had been very close to Lalu.

Rebel RJD leader Gulam Gaus, a sitting MLC who joined JD-U recently, has been fielded from Madhuvani parliamentary seat from where senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui is contesting against sitting BJP MP  Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav.

Another former RJD leader Devinder Prasad Yadav, who also joined JD-U sometime back, has been fielded from Jhanjharpur.

Sitting MPs Maheshwar Hazari, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Arjun Rai, Ram Sunder Das had been renominated from Samastipur, Khagaria, Sitamarhi and Hajipur respectively.

Ashwamedh Devi has been named as party candidate from Ujiarpur, marking the end of JD-U's alliance talks with CPI-M, which was seeking the Lok Sabha seat for itself.

JD-U has formalised an alliance with CPI and the parties are contesting in 38 and 2 seats respectively under the seat sharing arrangement.There are 40 parliamentary seats in Bihar.

Saleem Parvez has been fielded from Saran, where former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi (RJD) and former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy (BJP) are in the fray.

The party has fielded Vijendra Choudhary from Muzaffarpur, Vijay Sahani from Vaishali, Anil Kumar from Gopalganj, Manoj Kumar from Siwan and Sanjay Jha from Darbhanga.

Santosh Shukla is contesting from Punia, Abu Kaiser from Bhagalpur, Ramprakash Mahato from Katihar, former MLA Vijay Mandal from Araria, Dineshwar Kamat from Supaul and Anil Kumar Sharma from Jehanabad.

Senior party leader Meena Singh has been fielded from Ara and Gopalprasad Singh from Patna Saheb.

The JD-U had on Saturday announced candidates for six seats for Bihar. With Sunday’s list, the party has now declared candidates for all the 38 seats it is contesting in Bihar.

The party also declared one candidate from Chandigarh and four seats in Jharkhand.

Image: Prakash Jha