Bihar polls: It's RJD vs Congress in these 6 seats as Mahagathbandhan rift comes to fore
Mutual gain: Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav at an INDIA bloc meeting in Patna | PTI
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday announced a Diwali shocker, fielding four candidates against Mahagathbandhan partners, including three against the Congress.
The list was announced a few hours before the deadline for the nominations in the final phase.
Vaishali, Lalganj and Kahalgaon, Sultanganj, Sikandra and Narkatiaganj are the six constituencies where RJD will lock horns with Congress. It is also contesting against former state minister Mukesh Sahni's Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) in Tarapur.
In Vaishali, RJD’s Sanjeev Kumar will fight the polls against Congress leader Ajay Kushwaha. RJD fielded Shivani Shukla in Lalganj for a direct contest against Aditya Kumar of Congress.
Rajaneesh Anand of RJD will contest in the upcoming polls from Kahalgaon against Praveen Kushwaha of Congress. In Sultanganj, it is RJD candidate Chandan Sinha against Congress's Lalan Yadav.
In Narkatiaganj, RJD gave ticket to Deepak Yadav against Congress candidate Shashwat Kedar Pandey. Sikandra will see a direct fight between RJD's Uday Narayan Chaudhary and Congress's Vinod Chaudhary.
Justifying its decision to field candidates in these seats, RJD state unit spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary told PTI that the RJD contests only in Bihar and neighbouring states. "Alliance partners of the INDIA bloc must understand our compulsions... We don't demand seats in southern or other states from our partners. We are the biggest party, we deserve to contest the maximum number of seats in Bihar."
The Congress is also up against CPI in three constituencies. Its candidate Shiv Prakash Garibdas will stand against CPI's Avadhesh Kumar Rai in Bachhwara.
In Rajapakar, Pratima Das of Congress will fight CPI candidate Mohit Paswan while in Bihar Sharif, Congress fielded Umer Khan against CPI's Shiv Kumar Yadav.
Bihar will go to ballots in two phases. The first one is scheduled for November 6 while the second one is on November 11. The votes will be counted on November 14.
India