RJD, JD(U) trade charge for loss at Banka

While senior leaders of the three "secular alliance" partners are hailing their victory in Bihar bypoll, a blame game has surfaced in Banka where the RJD candidate lost narrowly.

RJD candidate from Banka Iqubal Hussain Ansari, who lost to BJP's Ram Narayan Mandal by 711 votes, has blamed state minister and JD(U) leader Javed Iqbal Ansari for the loss.

The RJD nominee told reporters at Banka that he lost the bypoll as the minister worked against him.

Refuting the charge, Javed Iqbal Ansari, who is the Tourism minister in Jitan Ram Manjhi cabinet, told PTI that the RJD candidate was "his traditional rival and that's why pointing accusing fingers at me".

"Was it possible for him to get 47,940 votes without the help of alliance partners?" the minister asked.

The minister attributed wrong candidate selection as the reason for the loss of the alliance in Banka.

"Had there been any second person other than him, the alliance could have won Banka seat with comfortable margin," he said.

Javed Iqbal Ansari was the RJD MLA from Banka in 2010 and the bypoll took place due to his resignation after leaving RJD and joining the JD(U) recently.

The questioning of candidate selection by the minister was not taken kindly by senior RJD leader Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha who said "its not good to question who is fielded from a constituency by an alliance partner".

"Likewise we can also blame candidate selection as the reason for loss of their nominees in other seats," Kushwaha said.