Mahagathbandhan comes out with final allocation of seats

Patna After a prolonged tugofwar among its partners the mahagathbandhan Grand Alliance in Bihar finally allocated all of the 40 Lok Sabha seats on Friday announcing candidature of Misa Bharti from Pataliputra Congress Meira Kumar from Sasaram and RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiquis from DarbhangaAs per the seatsharing formula the RJD has got 20 seats out of which it is giving up one for the ultraLeft party the Congress has nine followed by five for Upendra Kushwahas RLSP and three each for Jitan Ram Manjhis HAM and Mukesh Sahnis VIPThe announcement was made by Tejashwi Yadav at a press conference on Friday but the absence of any senior Congress leader on the occasion showed the partys displeasure over armtwisting by Lalu Prasads RJDThe announcement of Abdul Bari Siddiquis name from Darbhanga draws the curtains on the possibility of sitting MP Kirti Azad seeking reelection as a Congress candidate who recently joined the party after quitting the BJPSpeculation is rife that the absence of senior Congress leaders at the press conference where former MLC Narendra Kumar Singh was a representative is an indication of its leadership being sore over being armtwisted by the RJD to give up its claim on the seat resulting in an embarrassment to AICC chief Rahul Gandhi who inducted Azad with fanfareAlthough Siddiqui is a senior leader and has held important ministries besides having served as leader of opposition in the state assembly his candidature has also ruffled the feathers of RJD strongman Ashraf Fatmi who has represented Darbhanga a number of times and was the runnerup in 2014Tejashwi Yadav also announced that the RJD would be fielding Tanveer Hassan in Begusarai the party candidate who came in second in 2014 a decision that may queer the pitch for CPIs Kanhaiya Kumar who is taking on firebrand BJP leader Giriraj SinghOur candidates for 18 constituencies are final We will do the same for Sheohar in the next few days while we are leaving Ara in favour of the CPIML as had been announced earlier Yadav saidWithholding the name on Sheohar seat could be seen as an attempt to mollify Tej Pratap Yadav who resigned from the post of patron of the RJD students wing Thursday to push candidatures of his favourites Angesh Kumar and Chandra Prakash from Sheohar and Jehanabad respectivelyFormer state minister Surendra Yadavs name was declared Friday for the Jehanabad Yadav who asserted that the mahagathbandhan was intact and unbreakable denied reports of a rift between his party and the Congress and taunted the NDA over BJP rebels entering the fray from seats like Banka and KatiharAmong the RJD chiefs family members his eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti will once again be in the fray from Pataliputra where she had lost in 2014 to her fathers former loyalist Ram Kripal Yadav who joined the BJP and went on to become a Union ministerParty MLA Chandrika Rai whose daughter Aishwarya is married to Prasads elder son Tej Pratap Yadav would be contesting from Saran which was unsuccessfully contested by Rabri Devi in 2014Earlier known by the name Chapra the seat was a pocket borough of Lalu Prasad who had got elected from there a number of times Rai will take on sitting BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy His candidature is however likely to annoy his soninlaw who has moved a petition to divorce his wife of six months Tej Pratap Yadavs resignation as patron of students wing was seen as his expression of anguish over the RJD pushing his fatherinlaw despite the estrangementFormer Union minister and RJD national vicepresident Raghuvansh Prasad Singh will contest from Vaishali which he won a number of times but in the last general elections he lost to mafia donturnedpolitician Rama Singh fielded by the LJPHina Shahab and Veena Devi who are wives of gangstersturnedpoliticians Mohd Shahabuddin and Anant Singh respectively will also be in the fray Shahab will be the RJD candidate from Siwan once considered a citadel of her jailed husband Neelam Devi whose husband Anant Singh is an Independent MLA will be the Congress nominee from MungerYadav also announced that the Congress high command has cleared the names of Supaul MP Ranjeet Ranjan from her sitting seat and Ashok Ram from Samastipur held by Ram Vilas Paswans younger brother Ram Chandra Paswan Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar will be the Congress candidate from Sasaram which she lost to BJPs Chhedi Paswan five years agoThe candidature of actorturnedpolitician Shatrughan Sinha from Patna Sahib is almost certain with the seat falling into the Congress kitty though it was not announced as the BJP leader is yet to formally join the partyThe sole Congress seat where the party was yet to decide its candidate was Valmiki Nagar HAM will be fielding Ashok Ram Azad Chandravanshi from Nalanda the home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar where he will take on sitting MP Kaushalendra KumarThe RLSP which has already fielded its candidate from Jamui gets Paschim Champaran Purvi Champaran Ujiarpur and Karakat Kushwahas current seat in addition The candidates would be announced shortlyMukesh Sahni a former Bollywood set designer who recently floated the Vikassheel Insaan Party will be contesting from Khagaria His party will also be fielding candidates from Muzaffarpur and MadhubaniCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates