Ahead of Bihar Assembly Elections 2020, several MLAs and prominent leaders have switched sides. In a recent development, while Bihar’s minister, Bima Bharti will contest election on Janta Dal (United) ticket, his husband Awadesh Mandal will hold on Rashtriya Janta Dal symbol, as per a report in Kashish News.
Awdhesh Mandal has claimed that he had a word with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and he would contest from Alam Nagar Assembly constituency on an RJD ticket. At present, Bima Bharti is an MLA from Rupauli Assembly Constituency.
Taking a dig at JD(U), Mandal said that the party had only used him. He further tagged JD(U) party as ‘criminals’.
Bima Bharti is the Minister of Sugarcane Industries of Bihar. She is currently a leader of Janata Dal (United) and a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. She has been elected as the representative of the Rupauli constituency for 4 times from November 2000 onward. Shankar Singh had defeated her in February 2005 but she was re-elected again in October 2005.
In 2016, the couple had been in controversy after Bharti helped her husband to escape from jail in a murder case. In the year 2005, Chanchal Paswan was shot dead in Akbarpur. Several others including Bima Bharti and Avhesh Mandal were made designated accused in the case. Vijay Paswan and Sonia Devi were eyewitnesses in the case.
Meanwhile, RJD leaders have said that the ticket distribution for each constituency would be done based on the popularity of candidates. Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, said that an internal survey is currently underway in Bihar and the agency involved in the exercise is interacting with voters and taking their feedback.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will convene the election campaign of Bihar on Tuesday. Rahul will address party workers and the public through a virtual rally. The Congress has named it Bihar Revolution Virtual Conference. Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) campaign committee chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh also said that an intensive campaign would be launched across the state to bolster the party’s electoral prospects for the next assembly elections.
