The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday came out with two lists of 25 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh.
The Janata Dal (United), on the other hand, announced all its 16 candidates from Bihar, where the Opposition ‘grand alliance’ is seeing some friction between the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
As part of the seat-sharing arrangement with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), of which it is a constituent, the JDU will contest 16 of Bihar’s 40 seats. This is one seat less than the number it contested five years back.
The JDU’s list reflected results of the state’s caste census in 2023. The JDU dropped two of its sitting Lok Sabha members.
Of the 16, six candidates are from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and five from Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs).
According to the census, these together comprise 63 per cent of the population and not 52 per cent as the Mandal Commission had estimated.
The EBCs, dozens of fragmented small castes, comprise 36 per cent, and the upper castes, including Muslim upper castes, account for 15 per cent, the survey found.
According to the JDU list, three candidates are from upper castes, one each from Mahadalit and Muslim communities, and two are women.
The JDU has dropped Siwan MP Kavita Singh and Sunil Kumar Pintu from Sitamarhi. It has accommodated two turncoats.
Lovely Anand, who recently joined the JDU from the RJD, will contest the Sheohar seat. BJP’s Rama Devi had won the seat in 2019 but it was allocated to the JDU in 2024.
Vijay Lakshmi Kushwaha, wife of Ramesh Singh Kushwaha, has been given a ticket from Siwan. Ramesh, former Rashtriya Loktantrick Morcha legislator from Ziradei, had returned to the JDU.
Lovely Anand is the wife of strongman Anand Mohan Singh.
From Sitamarhi, the JDU has fielded chairman of the Bihar legislative council, Devesh Chandra Thakur and former legislator Mujahid Alam from Kishanganj.
It was the only seat the NDA had lost in Bihar’s 40 five years back. The JDU has fielded 12 sitting MPs, including Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh from Munger.
As for the Congress-RJD friction, the two sides will likely hold talks on Sunday evening.
While the Congress demanded nine seats, the number it contested five years ago, the RJD is willing to part with only six.
While the RJD is keen to field former JDU legislator Bima Bharti from the Purnia seat, the Congress wants it for Jan Adhikar Party chief Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav, who joined the Congress earlier this week.
In Begusarai, the Communist Party of India (CPI) has fielded former legislator Awadhesh Rai. In 2019, Kanhaiya Kumar contested as a CPI candidate but later joined the Congress. The Congress was keen to field him from the seat.
On Saturday, the Congress released its fourth list of 46 candidates. It fielded former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh in MP, Kantilal Bhuria from Ratlam, Imran Masood from Saharanpur and Danish Ali, the sitting BSP MP, from Amroha.
Ali joined the Congress earlier this week. Other candidates include Tanuj Punia, son of former Congress Rajya Sabha MP PL Punia, from UP’s Barabanki, Ajay Rai from Varanasi and Virendra Rawat, son of former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat, from Haridwar.
In Rajasthan, it left the Nagaur seat for Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, fielded Kawasi Lakhma from Bastar and renominated several of its sitting Tamil Nadu MPs, including S Jothimani from Karur and Karti Chidambaram from Sivaganga.
From the Inner Manipur seat, the Congress fielded academician Angomcha Bimol Akoijam.
First Published: Mar 24 2024 | 9:56 PM IST