PATNA: The CPI on Friday announced a candidate for Bihar’s Begusarai Lok Sabha seat where the Congress was insisting on fielding former JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar — another sign of unease in the grand-alliance over distribution of seats for the general election.
The CPI and Congress are also part of INDIA bloc formed to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. CPI general secretary D Raja said here that his party would field three-time MLA Awadhesh Rai as the party candidate from Begusarai. “Options are open for building a consensus among all constituents of the grand alliance on all seats,” he said.
A decision on Begusarai was taken at the CPI’s state executive meeting, attended by Raja and party’s national secretaries Nagendra Nath Ojha and Ram Krushna Panda. Earlier, the CPI had claimed that it was busy in preparations for contesting on three seats -- Begusarai, Banka and Madhubani. In the Banka seat, RJD has already named senior party leader Jai Prakash Yadav as its candidate.
Meanwhile, tension between RJD and Congress over Aurangabad seat seemed to have intensified after RJD chief Lalu Prasad announced that Abhay Kushwaha would be the party candidate from there.
Aurangabad is considered a traditional seat of the Congress as it was represented in Lok Sabha by veteran party leader and former chief minister Satyaendra Narayan Sinha, his son and former Delhi police commissioner Nikhil Kumar and daughter-in-law Shyama Singh.
Peeved over Lalu unilaterally declaring a candidate from Aurangabad, Nikhil accused RJD of violating coalition ethics by allocating tickets for constituencies where the Congress has rightful claims. Nikhil had won Aurangabad seat as the Congress candidate in 2004 but Sushil Kumar Singh emerged winner in three subsequent elections.
Ex-CM to be NDA candidate from Gaya
Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi will be the NDA’s candidate from the Gaya Lok Sabha seat, his party Hindustani Awam Morcha announced. According to a statement issued by the party office, the candidature of Manjhi was approved by his son and state minister Santosh Suman, who is the national president of the party.