Bhagalpur, October 21 (NEWS IN BIHAR). 87 candidates have filed their nominations for all the seven assembly seats of Bhagalpur. But everything is not looking good here in the Grand Alliance.

Here the constituent parties of the grand alliance have fielded candidates against each other. There are seven assembly seats in the district. In two seats where Congress candidates were always in the fray, this time RJD has also fielded its candidates. Overall, RJD has fielded its candidates on four assembly seats in the district.

RJD candidates are in the fray in Peerpainti, Kahalgaon, Sultanganj and Nathnagar. But out of these, Kahalgaon and Sultanganj were always in the electoral fray for Congress. But this time RJD has also fielded its candidate here. NDA has controlled the damage in Bhagalpur district.

First, RJD made its candidate for Kahalgaon seat, Rajneesh Yadav, son of Jharkhand minister Sanjay Yadav, while two days before the last date of nomination, Congress has also fielded Congress leader Praveen Kushwaha here by giving ticket. In Sultanganj, RJD has fielded Chandan Sinha against Lalan Yadav of Congress.

The grand alliance is looking fine in Bhagalpur, Gopalpur and Bihpur. Congress is in the fray in Bhagalpur, RJD in Pirpainti and VIP in Gopalpur and Bihpur. Everything is fine here. Coalition religion has been followed in these four assembly constituencies. But in Bihpur VIP has made Aparna Kumari its candidate. Aparna had left JDU a day earlier and joined VIP. In such a situation, there is a possibility of an ambush inside. Whereas in Gopalpur, Mukesh Sahni has made W Yadav the candidate. W Yadav’s wife is the chief of Gopalpur. In Bihpur, mainly VIP and Jansuraj are against BJP MLA Engineer Shailendra, while in Gopalpur, apart from VIP and Jansuraj, present MLA Gopal Mandal is also fighting against JDU candidate Bulo Mandal as an independent.

The NDA clan in the district also seemed to be disintegrating for a few days, but now it has recovered. With the announcement of the name of Rohit Pandey, BJP candidate from NDA for Bhagalpur seat, the voices of rebellion became louder. Here, first Arjit Shashwat Choubey, son of former Union Minister Ashwini Choubey, rebelled and then Bihar BJP media panelist Preeti Shekhar also rebelled and both took NR for nomination. But when Arjit Shashwat Chaubey, who had gone for nomination, returned after reaching the nomination venue, Preeti Shekhar was called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to meet him. As soon as they met, both of them refused to contest the elections and gave their support to Rohit Pandey. However, the matter is stuck in Kahalgaon. Last time BJP had contested elections here and by defeating Congress candidate Subhanand Mukesh, BJP’s Pawan Yadav ended 40 years of Congress rule. But this time in the alliance this seat has come from BJP to JDU’s account. Now here JDU has made Subhanand Mukesh, who came from Congress, its candidate. Just a few days after the 2020 elections, Subhanand Mukesh left Congress and joined JDU. It is noteworthy that Subhanand Mukesh is the son of late Congress leader Sadanand Singh. The rebellion started as soon as Subhanand Mukesh was made the candidate and BJP MLA Pawan Yadav announced to contest the elections as an independent and filed his nomination on the last day of the nomination date. Now the contest has become a four-cornered affair. Rajneesh Yadav from RJD, Praveen Kushwaha from Congress, independent Pawan Kumar Yadav and Subhanand Mukesh from NDA are in the fray. Expressing confidence in the old face, RJD has given the ticket to former MLA Ram Vilas Paswan in Pirpainti, while in Nathnagar, new face administrative officer Z Hasan has been made the candidate. Whereas in Sultanganj, new face Chandan Sinha has been made the candidate. Whereas NDA has expressed confidence in the current MLA from Sultanganj, Lalit Narayan Mandal. In Nathnagar, LJP has given ticket to District Council President Mithun Yadav. Whereas in Pirpainti, BJP has given ticket to Murari Paswan, expressing confidence in the new face.

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/ Bijay Shankar