The Hindu Writes :-
Patna (PTI): Kinship is once again playing a crucial role in the election in Bihar with a large number of relatives of political stalwarts throwing their hat into the ring.
Not only have they been given tickets by their powerful kins to contest the Lok Sabha polls, estranged relatives of political bigwigs have been courted by their rivals and suitably rewarded.
The case of high-profile RJD MP Aniruddh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav, brother-in-law of Railway minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, however, takes the cake.
Sadhu Yadav, the sitting MP from Gopalganj, was eyeing the West Champaran seat which became reserved for the scheduled castes after delimitation.
However, after pretty hard bargaining, the West Champaran seat went to Ramvilas Paswan's LJP, which has fielded film-maker Prakash Jha from the constituency.
Sadhu, who has hogged media headlines for all the wrong reasons from assaulting a senior IAS officer to opening fire on JNU students protesting in front of Delhi's Bihar Bhavan against the murder of their former president Chandrashekhar in Siwan a few years ago, cried foul and accused Paswan of 'selling' the seat to Jha for the launch of his son Chirag's career in Bollywood.
Sadhu approached Congress' pointsman for Bihar Sushilkumar Shinde and joined the party, smarting under RJD-LJP snub, and is contesting from West Champaran.
Ramvilas Paswan's younger brother Ramchandra, the sitting MP from the erstwhile Rosera (reserved) seat, has been fielded from Samastipur where he is set to cross swords with his maternal cousin Maheshwar Hazari.
Hazari, LJP MLA from Warisnagar (reserved) seat, joined Bihar's ruling JD(U) soon after the elections were announced.
Nikhil Kumar, retired IPS officer and former Delhi police commissioner, is a sitting Congress MP from Aurangabad, the seat once considered the pocket borough of his father and former chief minister Satyendra Narain Sinha.
Kumar's brother-in-law Uday Singh is trying to retain his Purnia seat on a BJP ticket. Singh is the younger brother of former high-profile IAS officer N K Singh and their mother Madhuri Singh represented Purnia in Lok Sabha several times.
Ranjeet Ranjan, wife of controversial RJD MP from Madhepura in the outgoing Lok Sabha Pappu Yadav, and herself LJP MP from Saharsa is in the fray from Supaul.
Pappu, according to those close to him, is waiting for a favourable court verdict to try his luck from Madhepura once again. He has been given life sentence in the murder case of CPI-M MLA from Purnia Ajit Sarkar.
Among those for whom kinship has been a big stepping stone in the past is Congress' Meira Kumar, cabinet minister for social justice and empowerment.
Kumar, daughter of former Union minister Babu Jagjivan Ram, is in the electoral ring yet again from Sasaram (reserved) seat and so is Madhurendra Kumar Singh, son of former Union minister and Governor Ramdulari Sinha from Sheohar, who is contesting on a Congress ticket.
BJP's Kirti Azad, cricketer-turned-politician son of former chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, is trying to regain the Darbhanga seat from Union minister of state for human resource development M A A Fatmi.
Shakeel Ahmed, Union minister of state for home and sitting Congress MP from Madhubani, is trying to retain the seat.
Though Ahmed has made a place for himself in the state and national politics (he was earlier state Congress president), it was kinship that first saw the medical practitioner become MLA and then MP in 1999 and 2004. He is the son of former Bihar Assembly deputy speaker Shakoor Ahmed.
Not only have they been given tickets by their powerful kins to contest the Lok Sabha polls, estranged relatives of political bigwigs have been courted by their rivals and suitably rewarded.
The case of high-profile RJD MP Aniruddh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav, brother-in-law of Railway minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, however, takes the cake.
Sadhu Yadav, the sitting MP from Gopalganj, was eyeing the West Champaran seat which became reserved for the scheduled castes after delimitation.
However, after pretty hard bargaining, the West Champaran seat went to Ramvilas Paswan's LJP, which has fielded film-maker Prakash Jha from the constituency.
Sadhu, who has hogged media headlines for all the wrong reasons from assaulting a senior IAS officer to opening fire on JNU students protesting in front of Delhi's Bihar Bhavan against the murder of their former president Chandrashekhar in Siwan a few years ago, cried foul and accused Paswan of 'selling' the seat to Jha for the launch of his son Chirag's career in Bollywood.
Sadhu approached Congress' pointsman for Bihar Sushilkumar Shinde and joined the party, smarting under RJD-LJP snub, and is contesting from West Champaran.
Ramvilas Paswan's younger brother Ramchandra, the sitting MP from the erstwhile Rosera (reserved) seat, has been fielded from Samastipur where he is set to cross swords with his maternal cousin Maheshwar Hazari.
Hazari, LJP MLA from Warisnagar (reserved) seat, joined Bihar's ruling JD(U) soon after the elections were announced.
Nikhil Kumar, retired IPS officer and former Delhi police commissioner, is a sitting Congress MP from Aurangabad, the seat once considered the pocket borough of his father and former chief minister Satyendra Narain Sinha.
Kumar's brother-in-law Uday Singh is trying to retain his Purnia seat on a BJP ticket. Singh is the younger brother of former high-profile IAS officer N K Singh and their mother Madhuri Singh represented Purnia in Lok Sabha several times.
Ranjeet Ranjan, wife of controversial RJD MP from Madhepura in the outgoing Lok Sabha Pappu Yadav, and herself LJP MP from Saharsa is in the fray from Supaul.
Pappu, according to those close to him, is waiting for a favourable court verdict to try his luck from Madhepura once again. He has been given life sentence in the murder case of CPI-M MLA from Purnia Ajit Sarkar.
Among those for whom kinship has been a big stepping stone in the past is Congress' Meira Kumar, cabinet minister for social justice and empowerment.
Kumar, daughter of former Union minister Babu Jagjivan Ram, is in the electoral ring yet again from Sasaram (reserved) seat and so is Madhurendra Kumar Singh, son of former Union minister and Governor Ramdulari Sinha from Sheohar, who is contesting on a Congress ticket.
BJP's Kirti Azad, cricketer-turned-politician son of former chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, is trying to regain the Darbhanga seat from Union minister of state for human resource development M A A Fatmi.
Shakeel Ahmed, Union minister of state for home and sitting Congress MP from Madhubani, is trying to retain the seat.
Though Ahmed has made a place for himself in the state and national politics (he was earlier state Congress president), it was kinship that first saw the medical practitioner become MLA and then MP in 1999 and 2004. He is the son of former Bihar Assembly deputy speaker Shakoor Ahmed.
4 comments:
Ask the people of Sitamarhi and Sheohar about Madhurendra Singh, he is the lone leader with a following of every class and community in Sheohar.Hats off to his loyalty towards the congress party. He was offerred an R.J.D ticket in 1998 and 1999, but he refused. but his loyalty was useless when he was denied ticket and the ticket was given to a criminal,s wife, causing humiliation to him.
But this did not lead him to change his path to another party.
He is still loyal towards the congress party, lets see what he gets in return.
Mr. Rajnish i agree with you that Madhurendra Kr Singh has a following in every caste, but you can't deny the fact that he is known as the Rajput strongman of Sheohar. Without offending anybody but we Rajput's consider him our leader,though he has a following in every caste. Like you have mentioned about his loyalty,which is the trait of a real rajput. Royalty & Loyalty flows in a Rajput warrior's blood.
The decisions of feilding candidates was taken in haste, the real congressmen were ignored, and people who were rejected from their erstwhile parties were given tickets which resulted in a flop show by such borrowed players.
And today they have become a burden for the congress party.
I, agree with Mr.Rajnish that Madhurendra Singh has established his own identity, really i must say that the Rajput's of Sheohar kept themselves away from the parliamentary elections after the congress ticket was given to lovely anand. As she and her husband has been a disgrace to the rajput community. Madhurendra Singh would have performed better,even though he has a royal legacy he has always been in contact with the aam janta of sheohar.
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