PATNA: Differences have emerged within Opposition Mahagathbandhan ahead of elections for eight seats in the Bihar Legislative Council (MLC).
The Election Commission is set to announce the election schedule for four graduate and as many teacher constituencies soon. A day after Lalu Prasad’s RJD announced candidates for six out of the eight seats, the Congress on Saturday said that the grand old party will field its candidates on all eight seats. “Congress was not taken into confidence before releasing candidates’ list by RJD,” party leader Asit Nath Tiwary said.
He accused the RJD of not following coalition dharma and said that the decision to release the names of candidates for the election was taken by the top brass of RJD. But Congress, which is an ally of Mahagathandhan, was not taken into confidence while finalising the seats it wanted to contest,
Tiwary added. RJD has fielded Sanjeev Kumar Singh from the Patna teacher constituency, Dilip Kumar from the Patna graduate constituency, Nitesh Kumar from the Kosi graduate, Anil Kumar Jha from the Darbhanga graduate, and Prof. Jay Ram Yadav from Saran teacher constituency and Dr Rashmi Vinayak Gautam from Tirhut graduate constituency.
While releasing the list, RJD leaders said that the two remaining seats were under consideration of the top leaders of the party. The seats are Darbhanga and Kosi teacher constituencies. Currently the seats are held by Congress leaders, including former state president Madan Mohan Jha. Jha was elected from Darbhanga teacher constituency.
Congress leaders held a meeting in Patna on Saturday to finalise the list of nominees.
BJP, JD(U) finalise names
In the NDA camp, both the BJP and JD(U) have finalised the names of their candidates. Controversy erupted within JD(U) over the Patna graduate seat after party MLA from Mokama Anant Singh backed the candidature of Anuj Kumar against sitting MLA Neeraj Kumar.