PATNA: Former Bihar minister and JD(U)'s senior leader Manoj Kushwaha will be the Mahagathbandhan candidate for byelection to Kurhani assembly seat in Muzaffarpur district, which is going to polls on December 5.
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh on Saturday announced the name of Kushwaha during a joint press conference, attended by senior leaders of all seven constituents of the Mahagathbandhan.
“Former minister and senior JD(U) leader Manoj Kushwaha will contest the bypoll from Kurhani assembly seat as JD(U) candidate. But he will be a combined candidate of the all seven constituents of the Mahagathbandhan. The decision to field Kushwaha was taken after consultation with all seven allies of the Mahagathbandhan,” Singh said.
Contacted over phone, Kushwaha told TOI that he would file his nomination papers on Monday (November 14).
November 17 is the last date for filing nominations while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is November 21.
Kushwaha, who was the minor water resources minister in the Jitan Ram Manjhi cabinet in 2014-15, had earlier won the assembly election from Kurhani assembly seat thrice in February 2005, November 2005 and 2010.
He lost the seat to BJP’s Kedar Prasad Gupta in 2015 polls.
The JD(U) national president further thanked the RJD chief Lalu Prasad for leaving his party’s sitting seat for the JD(U).
In the 2020 assembly election, Kurhani seat was won by RJD’s Anil Kumar Sahni.
The bypoll to Kurhani seat was necessitated following the disqualification of Anil Sahni after his conviction in a case of fraud probed by the CBI.
Polling will be held on December 5 while the counting of votes will take place on December 8.
Earlier, while addressing the joint press conference, RJD’s senior leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui said the RJD president Lalu Prasad decided to leave the Kurhani seat for the JD(U) at the request of CM Nitish Kumar and after consultation with all other allies of the Mahagathbandhan.
All allies of the grand alliance gave their consent for fielding the JD(U) candidate, Siddiqui said.
BPCC president Madan Mohan Jha, HAM-S national president and minister Santosh Kumar Suman, CPI-ML senior leaders Rajaram and KD Yadav, CPI’s Ram Naresh Pandey and CPM’s Arun Kumar represented their parties at the joint press conference.
