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Ravi Shankar Prasad Gets Shatrughan Sinha’s Patna Sahib Seat


Mangalore Today News Network

Mar 23, 2019: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday, 23 March, dropped Shatrughan Sinha from its list in Bihar, announcing Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad instead as its candidate from the state’s Patna Sahib seat.


Ravi-Shankar


Speaking to news agency ANI after the announcement, Prasad thanked PM Modi and party president Amit Shah for announcing his name from Patna Sahib.

"“Patna is my city, I was born there, studied there, became a lawyer. Even though I had been working on national level,I’ve an emotional connection with Patna. I’m grateful to the party, PM Modi, Amit Shah Ji and others.”"

The three NDA constituents in Bihar – BJP, JD(U) and LJP – announced the names of candidates for 39 Lok Sabha constituencies for the coming general elections. The LJP is yet to decide on the candidate from Khagaria.

As decided earlier between the three parties, the BJP and the JD(U) will contest 17 seats each and the LJP in six.

Sinha Likely to Join Congress?

Meanwhile, according to a Times of India report, Sinha is likely to join Congress either on Sunday or Monday. Speaking to the daily, Sinha’s aide had said, “Congress is a better option as it would provide Shatrughan ji the opportunity to be in national politics.”

A vocal critic of PM Narendra Modi, Sinha has had several run-ins with the government, the latest being his series of tweets against the prime minister on the “chowkidar” issue.

Bihar NDA Alliance – Who Gets What?

According to the earlier announcement, the BJP will contest from Paschim Champaran (Bettiah), Purvi Champaran (Motihari), Muzaffarpur, Saran, Maharjaganj, Sheohar, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Ujiarpur, Begusarai, Patna Sahib, Patliputra, Ara, Buxar, Sasaram, Aurangabad and Araria.

The JD(U) will field candidates from Valmikinagar, Siwan, Gopalganj, Jehanbad, Gaya, Karakat, Madhepura, Supaul, Jhanjharpur, Sitamarhi, Purnea, Kishanganj, Banka, Bhagalpur, Munger, Nalanda and Katihar.

Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP will contesting the Lok Sabha seats of Hajipur, Samastipur, Jamui, Nawada, Khagaria and Vaishali.

Here is a look at the NDA alliance’s candidate list in Bihar:

BJP chief Amit Shah had announced in October 2018 that the party and the JD(U) will contest equal number of seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.

In December the same year he had announced that the BJP and the JD(U) will contest 17 seats each, while the LJP will get the remaining six seats in the state.

The LJP will also be given a Rajya Sabha berth and Paswan is likely to be its candidate, he had said.

The Lok Sabha election in the state will be held in seven phases with the first one on 11 April and the last on 19 May.

The counting of votes will take place along with the rest of the country on 23 May, the Election Commission had said.

A total of 7.06 crore voters will exercise their franchise in 72,723 polling stations in the state.

(With inputs from PTI.)