Bihar bypoll: RJD to field nominees on all three seats

With the Election Commission issuing notification for the three by-elections in Bihar, the ruling party, as well as the Opposition leaders, have started gearing up for the  bypolls.

The RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who is serving jail sentence in Ranchi, on Friday said that his party would field candidates on all the three seats.

The by election will take place in Araria Lok Sabha constituency, besides two Assembly seats Jehanabad and Bhabua - on March 11. The Araria seat fell vacant after veteran RJD MP, Mohammad Taslimuddin, passed away in September 2017.

Similarly, the bypolls in Jehanabad and Bhabua were necessitated after RJD MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav (Jehanabad) and Anand Bhushan Pandey of the BJP passed away recently.

 "Taslimuddin's son Sarfaraz Alam, who is presently JD (U) MLA, is likely to resign as legislator and may be fielded by the RJD in the Araria Lok Sabha bypoll," a reliable source in the RJD told Deccan Herald.

The BJP is likely to field former MP, Shahnawaz Hussain, although the JD (U) may also stake its claim in Araria. All the three parties had contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections separately as there was neither the grand alliance nor JD (U)-BJP alliance in Bihar four years back.

The BJP is likely to field Pandey's widow Rinki Rani Pandey as the party nominee from Bhabua Assembly seat (in western Bihar) while the RJD may field the deceased leader Mundrika Yadav's son Sudai Yadav as the RJD candidate from Jehanabad.

The counting of votes for all the three seats will take place on March 14.