LJP finalizes candidates, Ram Vilas not to contest Lok Sabha polls

PATNA: The parliamentary board of

LJP

on Monday finalized its candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.


Though a formal announcement of the candidates was not made due to the death of Goa CM Manohar Parrikar, sources said the party will retain most of its sitting MPs, including Chirag Paswan (Jamui) and Ram Chandra Paswan (Samastipur). Chaudhary

Mehboob Ali Kaiser

, who won the 2014 elections from Khagaria is likely to be retained, but a final decision would be taken later, a party source said.

The LJP has dropped its Vaishali MP Rama Kishore Singh and the party is likely to field Veena Singh, wife of JD(U) MLC Dinesh Singh from that seat.

LJP’s parliamentary board chairman Chirag, however, announced that his father and party chief Ram Vilas Paswan would not contest the election. Ram Vilas is MP from Hajipur. Party insiders said his younger brother and state animal husbandry resources minister Pashupati Kumar Paras will be fielded from Hajipur.

BJP, the bigger ally in the NDA, had suggested LJP to field Ram Vilas again from Hajipur on the feedback received in a survey conducted by the party. However, the LJP chief had already said he would not contest the parliamentary elections and BJP chief Amit Shah had given his nod for a Rajya Sabha seat to the senior Paswan.

Veena Devi, wife of don-turned-politician Surajbhan Singh, is certain to be fielded from

Nawada

. She is an MP from Munger constituency, which has gone to ally JD(U) as it had “assertively” sought it for fielding Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, a close aide of CM Nitish Kumar.

Briefing media after the parliamentary board meeting, Chirag said: “Since majority of the seats allotted to our party are already being represented by our party in the Lok Sabha, not much brainstorming was done over the selection of candidates. Only Munger seat has been swapped with Nawada.”

He added: “Deliberations were held on the names of different candidates in consideration for different constituencies. Discussions were also held whether there was any need to change any LJP candidate.”

Chirag said the final announcement of the candidates would be made soon as there was censuses on the names.


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