Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to field Rajya Sabha MP R.K. Sinha from Patna Saheb, putting an end to speculation about Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad contesting from the seat that is presently held by party rebel Shatrughan Sinha.
Former Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain, who finds himself completely sidelined in the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah dispensation, has been left in the lurch as his erstwhile constituency of Bhagalpur has gone to the Janata Dal (United) in the seat-sharing arrangement between the two parties.
The two parties, set to fight 17 seats each, are likely to declare the final list soon. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the third party in the alliance, will fight the remaining six seats.
“Ravi would have made an ideal candidate for Patna Saheb. But the party will need him for the media in Delhi — a job he has been doing for over a decade,” said a senior BJP leader on condition of anonymity.
“The only person who could have replaced him was finance minister Arun Jaitley, but he has not been in the best of health,” said the leader.
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The Patna Saheb conundrum
Patna Saheb seat is considered one of the safest seats for BJP in India — especially after the last delimitation of seats in 2008 which made it an urban seat. Courtesy its large Kayastha population, Patna Saheb is the most sought after by BJP leaders.
Dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha has won from this constituency twice.
Congress leaders complain that Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad always hands them over the Patna Saheb seat because he knows that it’s not winnable.
Two months ago, there was speculation that Jaitley may be fielded from this seat, especially with Sinha severely critical of the BJP’s central leadership.
However, the former Bollywood star may contest the constituency as an opposition alliance candidate.
Deserters left in a lurch
The seat sharing agreement between BJP and JD(U) has caused gloom in the ruling saffron party.
The best known minority face of the BJP, Shahnawaz Hussain, maybe shifted to Araria but it still has not been cleared.
Araria is the only seat with the BJP in the Seemanchal region this time. In the last elections, the BJP benefitted from the communal divide in the region, located near the Indo-Nepal border area with four parliamentary seats and a large Muslim population.
This time, the other three seats in the region have gone to JD(U).
Similarly, Union minister Giriraj Singh — the hardcore face of BJP known for his statements like “Go to Pakistan” — has been forced to shift to Begusrai because his seat Nawada has gone to LJP.
“Nitish Kumar has succeeded in leaving those who deserted him or those who were critical of him in the lurch,” said the senior BJP leader.
With the seat-sharing agreement, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar also appears to have settled some scores with MPs who deserted him in the last few years.
The first one is Samrat Choudhary, son of prominent Kushwaha leader Shakuni Choudhary and a former JDU leader who was close to the Bihar CM. However, before the 2015 state assembly elections, he left the JD(U) to join the BJP.
The BJP was trying to take the Khagaria parliamentary seat under the agreement, hoping to field Samrat Choudhary. The party has been trying to woo the Kushwahas, who constitute more than 6 per cent of the population in Bihar, for the last three years.
“Khagaria was an ideal seat because it has a large Kushwaha and EBC (economically backward class) population. But the seat has gone to LJP,” said the BJP leader.
The other JD(U) deserter who has been given a cold shoulder is the sitting BJP MP from Aurangabad, Sushil Singh.
Singh was a JD(U) MP from Aurangabad before 2014. However, before the last Lok Sabha elections, he switched sides to the BJP.
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More BJP casualties
Apart from Singh, other “ticketless” BJP MPs are Janak Chamar (Gopalganj), Satish Dubey (Valmiki Nagar), Om Prakash Yadav (Siwan) and Birendra Chaudhary (Jhanjharpur).
All of them have been left out as BJP gave up five seats with sitting MPs out of its 22 from the last Lok Sabha to retain the alliance with JD(U).
“We go to polls as allies. But it will be a happy Nitish and a gloomy BJP,” joked the BJP leader.