RLSP, LJP name candidates for Bihar polls amid sob stories

New Delhi: Two constituents of BJP-led NDA-- RLSP and LJP--on Monday announced names of their 17 and nine candidates for the Bihar polls but not before sob stories added a touch of drama to the otherwise insipid exercise.

Emotion-charged scenes were played out at the press conference of Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha's press conference where he was to announce the names of party nominees, with an aspirant Ashok Gupta slumping on the floor and crying aloud after being left out of the race.

"Baap re baap! loot liya," he said as he lay supine on the floor, giving a hard time to party volunteers who tried to remove him. Gupta alleged he had "paid money" to the party but was still denied a ticket to contest from Narkatiaganj constituency. He, however, later clarified the money he claimed to have paid to the party was at the time it was formed.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan's son-in-law Anil Kumar Sadhu was seen sobbing and wiping tears on Sunday night on TV over denial of ticket, barely a day after he raised a banner of revolt and threatened to field Dalit Sena candidates against LJP nominees. Sadhu heads the Dalit Sena, a frontal organisation of LJP founded by Paswan.

Later, while announcing the names of party nominees, Kushwaha asserted that none of them had got tickets owing to family ties, in an apparent reference to the charge of nepotism levelled against LJP in ticket distribution. Several of Paswan's kin including brother and nephew are in the fray.

The Union minister also protested against BJP for keeping him in the "dark" about putting up its candidate from a seat it had considered allotting to a party candidate and said he would take up the matter with its chief Amit Shah, underlining the persisting differences among the NDA parties over seat distribution.

LJP also announced candidates for nine seats, fielding former MP and strongman Kaali Prasad Pandey from Kuchaykot and Vijay Singh from Chakai Assembly seat over which it was at loggerheads with Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM.

RLSP will declare names of its nominees for the six remaining seasts from its quota in the coming days, while LJP has been left with 19 more seats for which it has to delcare candidates.

NDA spearhead BJP has declared names of candidates for all but seven of its 160 seats, while Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM has named its candidates 21 in its share.