PATNA: At a time when the opposition is hoping to oust Nitish Kumar-led NDA from power riding over anti-incumbency wave, the turncoat politicians in Bihar assembly elections are posing a formidable challenge to their opponents in more than half of the constituencies.
Alone in the first phase of Bihar Assembly elections, then more than 18 JDU rebels have gone to the polls and are pitted against the candidates of their previous party. The JDU is facing more challenges from party rebels than other parties and recently 19 rebel leaders were expelled by JDU for next six years.
Sources said that 15 of them are pitted against the candidates of JDU in the first phase while four of them are contesting in the second phase of election against the Nitish Kumar led-party's official candidates.
In the first phase, there are many rebels of JDU contesting to impact the result against JDU and other rival candidates. One of them is Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, who is contesting on the LJP ticket against JDU candidate from Jagdishpur seat in Ara.
The influential JDU rebel is sitting MLA Dadan Pehalwan, now contesting against JDU candidate Anjum Ara as an independent on the Dumraon seat.
Apart from them, former JDU minister Rameshwar Paswan, former MLAs Ran Vijay Singh, Sumit Singh, Ramchandra Sada and Lalan Bhuiyan are prominent contesting against JDU official candidates from different seats in the first, the second and last phases of polling.
The BJP is also facing a tough challenge from its rebel leaders on many seats. Ajay Pratap, the son of former Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh, is contesting on the ticket of RLSP against BJP candidate Shreyasi Singh on the Jamui seat after getting miffed over not being given BJP's ticket.
In 2015, RJD candidate Yadav defeated BJP's Ajay Pratap by a margin of 8240 votes. In the second phase, rebel JDU leaders namely Shailendra Pratap Singh and Ravi Jyoti are prominent among others who are contesting against JDU candidates from different seats.
In Bihar elections, the LJP tops in giving tickets to turncoats while fielding its candidates on 143 seats on its own.
The LJP has fielded turncoats like Rameshwar Chaurasia from Sasaram, Rajendra Singh (former vice president of BJP and CM candidate of BJP in 2015) from Dinara, Usha Vidyarthi from Paliganj, Shweta Singh from Sandesh, Ravindra Yadav from Jhajha, Indu Kashyap from Jehanabad, Mrinal Shekhar from Amarpur, Kameshwar Singh Munna from Ekma, Rani Kumari from Makhdumpur, Rakesh Kumar Singh from Ghosi, Kumari Shobha Sinha from Imamganj, Arjun Ram from Rajauli, Shashi Bhushan Kumar from Nawada and Ranjit Yadav from Govindpur seats.
The BJP, JDU and RJD have also given tickets to many turncoats in this election. For example, Rama Singh, who has joined the RJD from LJP, has been given ticket for his wife from Mahnar seat. Bharat Bind, who joined the RJD coming from BSP, is contesting from Bhabhua seat while Bhudev Chaudhary, RLSP rebel, now is in fray on the ticket of RJD from Dhoraiya seat.
Former MP Lovely Anand joined the RJD and took a ticket from Saharsa for himself and son Chetan Anand from Sheohar seat. Chaudhary Yusuf Kaiser, the son of Khagaria MP Chaudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser, joined the RJD and is now in fray from Simri Bakhtiyarpur seat.
The JDU has also given tickets to many turncoats namely Chandrika Rai( father in-law of Lalu’s son Tej Pratap Yadav), Jayavardhan Yadav, Prema Chaudhary, Maheshwar Yadav, Faraj Fatmi, Ashok Kumar, Sanjay Prasad-all joined JDU from RJD, are in the electoral fray.
Not a single party is untouched from giving tickets to turncoats leaders including the VIP. Ram Chandra Sahni, a candidate from Sugauli, is in fray on the VIP ticket while earlier he was the sitting BJP MLA.
Similarly, Hari Sahni from Kewati, Suman Kumar Mahaseth from Madhubani, Mishri Lal Yadav from Alinagar were in other parties are contesting on the VIP tickets.