New Delhi: The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) named Thursday its 42 candidates for the Bihar assembly polls. Among the names announced were some BJP turncoats. As the LJP released its first list of candidates, president Chirag Paswan again gave a call to defeat the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U). Chirag Paswan claimed that a vote for the state’s ruling party will amount to ‘destroying’ Bihar.
All these 42 seats are among the 71 constituencies going to polls in the first phase October 28, the LJP said.
As expected, the LJP fielded Rajendra Singh and Usha Vidyarthi, two senior Bihar BJP leaders who joined the party recently. They have been nominated from Dinara and Paliganj constituencies respectively.
The LJP has also announced that it will fight from the seats where the JD(U) is contesting. It will not put up candidates against the BJP. Though the party may contest from a few constituencies where the BJP is also in the fray due to political reasons, but it will mostly avoid such a situation.
LJP sources said the party had given preference to upper caste and Dalit nominees in its choice of candidates. Thursday was the last day of filing for nominations for the first phase of the three-phase Bihar elections.
Hitting out at Kumar’s leadership, Chirag had walked out of the NDA in Bihar. He had claimed that a BJP-LJP government will come to power in this state after the polls.
The BJP has, however, worked to placate the JD(U) leader. The saffron party has maintained constantly that Kumar will be Bihar’s chief minister again if the ruling alliance is voted to power for one more time.
