1. Home
2. India

BJP denies ticket to Shatrughan, Ravi Shankar Prasad to contest from Patna Sahib

Kashmir Times. Dated: 3/24/2019 12:31:14 PM

NEW DELHHI, Mar 23 (Agencies): Setting at rest all speculations about its candidate for the prestigious Patna Sahib constituency, the Bharatiya Janata Party fielded Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Sinha, who is likely to be pitted against its sitting MP and veteran film star Shatrughan Sinha.
The NDA on Saturday announced the names of all its candidates except one for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar at a press conference in Patna. The name of the Lok Janshakti Party’s candidate for the Khagaria seat will be announced in a day or two, senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav, while releasing the list in the presence of senior NDA leaders, said.
The exclusion of Shatrughan Sinha’s name was, however, a foregone conclusion, as he had been extremely critical of the Narendra Modi government for the past four years. Although the Mahagathbandhan is yet to announce its candidate from Patna Sahib, Shatrughan is likely to be the Congress nominee from the seat, which he has represented for two consecutive terms on BJP ticket.
The BJP retained all its ministers from Bihar such as Radha Mohan Singh (East Champaran), Ashwini Choubey (Buxar), R K Singh (Ara), Ram Kripal Yadav (Patliputra), but it shifted Giriraj Singh from Nawada to Begusarai constituency, a decision which has irked the firebrand party leader. Giriraj had earlier conveyed his reluctance to change his seat but the party still announced his name from the Begusarai seat. This time, Nawada seat has gone to LJP's quota.
Interestingly, Giriraj wanted to contest from Begusarai in the 2014 general elections but the BJP fielded him from Nawada. Political observers believe Giriraj is now wary of contesting from Begusarai because of JNU’s student leader Kanhaiya Kumar who is set to be fielded by the CPI from there. Giriraj's supporters, however, claim that he has done a lot of work in Nawada.
Among other notable leaders from Bihar whose names are missing from the NDA list include those of the LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan and the BJP’s Muslim face Syed Shahnawaz Hussain. While Paswan had himself opted out and fielded his younger brother Pasupati Kumar Paras from his traditional Hajipur (reserved) seat, Shahnawaz failed to get the BJP ticket either from Bhagalpur or Kishanganj because both these seats have gone to the JD-U quota.
Interestingly, the LJP has withheld the name of its candidate from Khagaria from where its leader Mehboob Ali Qaiser had won the parliamentary polls last time. Qaiser was the lone Muslim leader from the NDA to have won the election in 2014 general elections.