RJD announces candidates for Legislative Council Polls

Patna, Jun 14: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday released a list of its 10 candidates for the biennial elections to the Legislative Council of Bihar and said they will help to "end the existence of BJP-RSS" in the state.

The candidates will enter the fray for the biennial polls to the 24 Legislative Council seats scheduled on July 7 as part of the 'secular alliance' forged by JD(U), RJD, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

They will be pitted against NDA contestants. "We have declared our 10 candidates for Council elections as part of the secular alliance, but our national president Lalu Prasad has explicitly asked us to treat all the alliance candidates on 24 seats going to polls as our own candidates and ensure their victory," said RJD state president Ram Chandra Purve while announcing the names of the candidates.

"Our workers and party leaders have been asked not to leave any stone unturned to ensure the victory of all the candidates. They will help end the existence of BJP and RSS in the state," he added.

Announcing the names of the candidates, Purve said Mishri Lal Yadav will contest from Darbhanga, Roma Bharti from Samastipur, Dilip Rai from Sitamarhi-cum-Sheohar, Kalawati Devi from East Champaran, Vinod Kumar from Siwan and Subodh Kumar from Vaishali will contest the polls.

Similarly, Vinay Prasad from Aurangabad, Mahanth Satyadev Das from Gopalganj, Sanjay Prasad from Munger-Jamui-Lakhisarai-Sheikhpura and Radha Charan Sah from Bhojpur and Buxar seats have been given the tickets to file their nominations.

The RJD state president said the criteria of adherence to social justice and secularism was considered while selecting the candidates and people belonging to all sections of the society including women, OBC, Extremely Backward Castes, and Scheduled Castes have been given tickets.

Among the alliance partners, JD(U) will put its candidates on 10 seats, Congress on three and NCP on one. They are yet to declare the names of their party members who will be pitted against NDA candidates in the polls, which is being touted as the "semi-final" before the Assembly elections scheduled in September-October.

The NDA partners - BJP, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) - are also yet to declare their candidates for the Council polls. The last date of filing the nominations for the Council polls is June 18 and the counting of votes will be done on July 10.

PTI