LJD chief Sharad Yadav's daughter Subhashini to join Congress today, will contest Bihar election

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Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) chief and former union minister Sharad Yadav's daughter Subhashini Raj Rao will join the Congress party today, ahead of the assembly elections in Bihar. She is set to contest the polls from Biharganj seat. 

Earlier on Monday, the Sharad Yadav-led party announced that it will contest 51 out of total 243 assembly seats in Bihar on its own. It has decided to contest the lone seat of Kurtha in the first phase and 50 seats in the second and third phases. 

Arun Srivastava, the party's national general secretary, said that the decision to contest assembly elections has been delayed because Sharad Yadav has not been keeping well which is why they could not take decision in time to field their candidates in the first phase. 

"We are contesting elections to protect Sharad Yadav's legacy (virasat) in politics," he asserted.

Yadav, a native of Madhya Pradesh, has been contesting polls in Bihar either with the help of Lalu Prasad or Nitish Kumar since days of Mandal commission movement that led to reservation for the OBCs in the government jobs. 

A socialist leader, Sharad Yadav had unsuccessfully contested from Madhepura Lok Sabha seat in Bihar in 2019 with the support of Lalu Prasad's party. Before that in 2014 he had lost as JD(U) nominee to Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav of the RJD. 

Neither RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav nor the Congress party took any interest in forging a formidable alliance of the secular forces to defeat BJP, Srivastava said.

"Everyone is interested in installing oneself as the Chief Minister instead of defeating the BJP," he said.

"If all the secular forces would have combined together, they could have defeated Nitish Kumar and the BJP", he said. He made it clear that the rumuor of Sharad Yadav joining JD(U) some months back was absolutely "wrong and baseless".

(With PTI inputs)