Jehanabad bypoll: NDA will field JD-U candidate

Patna: Amid tussle over seat-sharing, the NDA on Sunday decided to field a JD(U) candidate for the byelection from the Jehanabad seat.

The decision was taken a day after BJP had urged the JD(U) to reconsider its decision and contest the byelection scheduled for next month. The JD(U) had earlier announced that it would not contest byelection from any of the seats.

JD(U) leaders said that the party decided to field a candidate from the Jehanabad seat after BJP urged party president Nitish Kumar to field a candidate from Jehanabad seat.

JD(U) leaders also dismissed speculations regarding tussle over the Assembly constituency.

Speaking on the issue, JD(U) spokesperson Niraj Kumar told this newspaper, “We had earlier decided not to contest by-elections as none of the seats was held by our party. Decisions to field JD(U) candidate was taken during a meeting.”

Sources claim that BJP leaders held several rounds of meetings with RLSP and HAM in order to build a consensus over fielding a right candidate.

Both RLSP and HAM had earlier staked a claim to the Jehanabad seat calling it their stronghold. However, HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi was the first to leave claim over the seat asking the BJP to decide it. In his statement, Manjhi had said that the decision was taken to avoid a Rajasthan-like situation where the NDA had lost all three seats in the by-elections held recently.

The Jehanabad seat fell vacant after the demise of RLSP MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav. NDA’s decision to field a JD (U) candidate from the Jehanabad seat has snowballed into a political battle.

In a statement on Sunday, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav criticised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar saying “he had earlier publicly announced that his party JD (U) will not contest by-elections but once again he has broken his promise. BJP knows that NDA will not win that’s why JD (U) has been asked to contest from the Jehanabad seat”.