Husbands behind bars, better halves get tickets

So be it Congress, which talks of cleansing the rot, or Bihar’s Mr-Clean-Chief-Minister Nitish Kumar, who talked of weeding out criminals from politics. All have succumbed to the pressure tactics of these “bahubalis”,  a term used for musclemen-turned-politicians.

Fully aware of the fact that all four have been debarred by the court from contesting any election, since all of them have been convicted in murder cases, the Congress, the Janta Dal-United (JD-U) and Lalu Prasad’s RJD have made the better-halves of these jailed leaders their nominees. Leading the pack is Congress, which has given ticket to Lovely Anand, wife of Anand Mohan, who has been awarded life sentence for his involvement in the murder of former Gopalganj DM, G Krishnaiah. Lovely, a former MP, will be contesting the polls from Alamnagar.

Similarly, Pappu Yadav, who is jailed after being convicted for murder of CPM MLA Ajit Sarkar, has ensured his wife gets a Congress ticket from Bihariganj in Madhepura, his stronghold. The Congress, however, dismissed the charge of giving undue weightage to shady elements. “Both Lovely and Ranjeet Ranjan are former MPs. And the party has nothing to do with Pappu Yadav or Anand Mohan,” said Prem Chandra Mishra, chief spokesman of Bihar Congress.

Nitish Kumar shocked his admirers when he nominated jailed leader Munna Shukla’s wife Annu Shukla from Lalganj. Munna, the JD (U) MLA from Lalganj, has been debarred by the court from contesting elections as he too was convicted in Krishnaiah murder case.
For RJD, the less said the better. Lalu Prasad’s closest associate Md Shahabuddin, who is languishing in Siwan jail on several charges of murder and kidnapping, has ensured his wife Heena Shahab becomes the RJD nominee from Siwan constituency.