2019 polls: Lalu’s daughter may contest from Patliputra

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti is likely to contest the next Lok Sabha elections from Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar.

The constituency is at present represented by BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav, the Union Minister of State for Rural Development.

Misa is a Rajya Sabha MP and a qualified doctor who topped the MBBS course from Patna.

She is not averse over locking horns with Ram Kripal, once Lalu's closest aide, who turned rebel and joined the BJP on the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

“Yes, I may contest the parliamentary elections from Patliputra. Is there any bar on contesting LS polls?” Misa asked. 

The Patliputra seat came into existence after the Patna Lok Sabha constituency was bifurcated into Patna Sahib (now represented by BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha) and Patliputra (represented by Ram Kripal) after the 2009 delimitation exercise.

Misa, who was named after the draconian law called MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) during the mid-1970s when Lalu was jailed for protesting against the Emergency, is the eldest of his nine children.

She has been charged in a money laundering case and is also accused of amassing assets disproportionate to her known sources of income. 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) charged her with making money through a firm ‘Mishail Packers and Printers’ and attached her Delhi farmhouse. The ED said ‘Mishail’ was named after Misa and Shailesh, her entrepreneur husband.

A special court in New Delhi, however, granted bail to Misa and Shailesh in the money laundering case in May 2018.

Not lucky for Lalu

Patliputra constituency has not been favourable to the RJD. In the 2009 election, Lalu Prasad lost to JD(U)’s Ranjan Yadav, another aide-turned-rebel, by 23,000 votes. Lalu won from Saran, his second constituency. 

In 2014, Misa made her electoral debut from Patliputra and contested against Ram Kripal, but lost by 44,000 votes.

“She is free to contest from any constituency. But the BJP will definitely rake up the issue of her shady past, particularly the charges of amassing huge wealth, in the ensuing polls,” a source in the ruling dispensation told DH.