Congress fields Kirti Azad from Dhanbad

RANCHI: Congress on Monday named BJP turncoat Kirti Azad as its candidate from the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat and former MLA Kalicharan Munda from the Khunti constituency. The party however is still struggling to identify a bankable face for Hazaribag, sources said. As part of the seat-sharing deal among mahagathbandhan partners, Congress is contesting on seven of the 14 LS seats.
Azad, a former BJP MP from Darbhanga, will take on the saffron party’s stalwart P N Singh while Munda will be pitched against former CM Arjun Munda. In Dhanbad, trade union leader and former Congress MP Chandra Shekar Dubey was leading the nomination race but the party had to accommodate Azad, a celebrity politician. “The party earlier offered him Valmikingar seat in Bihar, but he wasn’t keen on contesting from there,” said another source.
Similarly, the party chose Kalicharan Munda, who fought on a Congress ticket in 2014 from Khunti but finished third, to build up Munda vs Munda fight.
Sources said the party is still a predicament over its Hazaribag candidate. “Until a few days back, former Barkagaon Yogendra Sao forced central leaders to keep the seat on hold for himself hoping to get relief from ongoing cases against him from the high court. However, the apex court gave him another date for April 15. Thereafter, he was lobbying for his daughter Amba, but she is too young and inexperienced for an electoral battle. There are a few more names in the reckoning but central leadership isn’t confident on anyone as yet. Let’s see,” said a source.