Bihar bypolls 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday named former MLA Ashok Kumar Singh and Vishal Prashant as its candidates for bypolls to Ramgarh and Tarari assembly segments of Bihar respectively. Singh will be trying his luck from the seat he had won in 2015, but lost five years later to RJD's Sudhakar Singh, whose election to Lok Sabha from Buxar has necessitated a bypoll in Ramgarh assembly segment.
Prashant, who had joined the party barely a few months ago, has been fielded from Tarari, represented a number of times by his father Sunil Kumar Pandey, a dreaded gangster-turned-politician. The bypoll in Tarari has been necessitated by election of CPI(ML)'s Sudama Prasad to Lok Sabha from Arrah.
The candidature of Prashant is also being seen as a fresh snub to disgruntled NDA partner and former Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras from the BJP which has thrown its weight behind his nephew Chirag Paswan, who now holds a cabinet berth. Sunil Pandey, who had joined BJP along with his son, was earlier with the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party headed by Paras, which had been hoping to contest Tarari seat on behalf of the NDA.
The candidature of Singh, a Rajput, and Prashant, a Bhumihar, also underscores the BJP's attempt to consolidate its support among the upper castes in Bihar, especially in the area south of the Ganga where it lost out to I.N.D.I.A bloc in Lok Sabha polls despite performing well in remaining parts of the state.
Besides Tarari and Ramgarh, bypolls are due in Imamganj, which was represented by Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, now the MP from Gaya, and Belaganj, which has fallen vacant upon RJD's Surendra Prasad Yadav's election from Jehanabad Lok Sabha seat.
NDA candidates for these two seats are yet to be announced while the I.N.D.I.A bloc has not revealed its cards for any of these seats. Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj, which has entered the electoral battle, has announced its candidates for all seats except Ramgarh. The fledgling party has fielded former army vice chief Lieutenant General Shri Krishna Singh from Tarari.
(With PTI inputs)
