BY MANOJ PATHAK
Patna, Five Bihar Assembly by-elections have created a queer situation for both political groupings — ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition grand alliance — as official candidates are being opposed by party members.
Ahead of the October 21 Assembly by-elections, rebels are out to spoil their game plans.
JD(U) leader and Siwan MP Kavita Singh’s husband Ajay Singh is the NDA candidate for the Daraunda Assembly seat in the Siwan district. He is facing a tough fight from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Karnajeet Singh allies Vyas who filed his papers as an Independent.
While senior BJP leaders along with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi is campaigning for Ajay Singh, Vyas is seeking votes in the name of the BJP. To prevent any misunderstanding, the BJP has suspended Vyas from the party.
Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal said, the party leaders and workers were campaigning for Ajay Singh, who would win the seat with thumping majority.
While the campaigning came to end on Saturday, the confusion and infighting continue to dog the opposition grand alliance. There is lack of coordination among grand alliance members.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has fielded Rabiya Khatoon from Nathnagar Assembly seat in the Bhagalpur district, as authorised NDA candidate, but the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) has fielded Ajay Rai.
Similarly, in Simri Bakhtiyapur seat two member parties of the grand alliance have fileded candidates. While the RJD has fielded Zafar Alam, another member of the grand alliance Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) has nominated Dinesh Yadav.
The situation is no different for the Left parties. Both the CPI and the CPI(M) have named candidates in the Daraunda constituency.
Bharat Singh in Daraunda, Sudhir Sharma in Nathnagar and Firoz Alam in Kishanganj are the CPI candidates. Except these seats, the party has decided to support the RJD candidates in Simri Bakhtiyarpur and Belhar.
The CPM has fielded Jaishankar Pandit from Daraunda.
