Purnea, Mar 27 (PTI) Bihar MLA Bima Bharti, who joined the RJD only last week, on Wednesday announced that she has got the party ticket from Purnea Lok Sabha seat and would file her nomination papers next week.
Bharti, who was formerly with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), also said she expected “blessings of my guardian” Pappu Yadav, who last week merged his Jan Adhikar Party with Congress and has been adamant on contesting from Purnea.
Addressing a press conference in Purnea, Bharti, whose photos receiving the party symbol from RJD president Lalu Prasad have gone viral on social media, said “I will be filing my nomination papers on April 3”.
Purnea goes to polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls for which filing of nomination papers will commence on Thursday.
Upon being asked when exactly did she get the RJD ticket from Prasad, who has been away in Delhi since last weekend, the former Bihar minister evaded a direct reply.
She said, “As soon as I took the membership of RJD, the party supremo, our leader Tejashwi Yadav and Rajmata Rabri Devi made clear that their blessings were with me”.
Bharti had joined RJD on March 23, within hours of quitting the JD(U). She had shown her displeasure with the Bihar CM’s party last month when she failed to turn up at the assembly while the government was seeking a trust vote.
Speculations had been rife that she took the step after the assurance of a ticket from the RJD leadership, much to the discomfiture of Pappu Yadav, who has represented Purnea in the Lok Sabha thrice.
Bharti, for whom it would be an uphill task if Yadav threw his hat in the ring, said “Pappu Yadav is my senior and my guardian. His party is an RJD ally and I hope he will bless me and even campaign in my favour”.
When Yadav was approached for his comments, the former “baahubali” said with an air of dejection “I have said it before and shall say it again. There is no power on earth which can stop me from contesting the Purnea seat this time”.
He added, cryptically, “It is for the Congress leadership to decide. I am without any fetters (hum na teen mein hain na terah mein)”.
Notably, the RJD has given away tickets to candidates for many seats, a number of these being eyed by the Congress.
Although neither party has so far formally announced any candidate’s name, state Congress leaders here say on condition of anonymity that they feared “yet another capitulation by our party” before the domineering RJD.
Earlier, the party was mortified by Prasad giving the RJD ticket to another JD(U) turncoat Abhay Kushwaha, for the Aurangabad seat, where the Congress wanted to field former MP Nikhil Kumar.
Meanwhile, sources close to JD(U) MP from Purnea Santosh Kushwaha, who is looking for a hat-trick, said he was likely to file nomination papers on Thursday itself, in the presence of senior NDA leaders in Bihar, including ministers in the Nitish Kumar government. PTI CORR SSS NAC RG
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