PATNA: BJP on Wednesday announced its candidates for the biennial election to Bihar legislative council’s seven seats. The names of Hari Sahni (a native of Darbhanga) and Anil Sharma (Jehanabad) were announced at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi.
Earlier on Tuesday, the JD(U) had announced the names of Afaque Ahmad Khan and Rabindra Prasad Singh as its candidate for the council polls.
All four NDA nominees – Sahni and Sharma (BJP) and Khan and Singh (JD-U)—would file their nomination together on Thursday, the last date for making nominations, before the returning officer at the Vidhan Sabha secretariat here, JD(U) national general secretary Afaque Ahmad Khan, who himself is a candidate, told TOI on Wednesday.
CM Nitish Kumar, deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad and other senior leaders of BJP, JD(U) and HAM-S would remain present at the Vidhan Sabha secretariat during the filing of nominations, Khan said.
Of the seven sitting MLCs retiring on July 21 this year, Arjun Sahni, also a native of Darbhanga, hails from the BJP. While the Vikashseel Insaan Party president and former minister Mukesh Sahani too was sent to the council from the BJP quota. Among the NDA partners, the BJP was asked to field its candidates against the two seats which would be vacated following the retirement of Arjun Sahani and Mukesh Sahani.
As two members from the Sahani (Nishad) community are retiring, the saffron party preferred to field Nishad against one of the two seats. Moreover, Arjun, a native of Darbhanga district, is being replaced by a person of the same district.
Insiders in the BJP said Hari was, in fact, being rewarded mainly for the sacrifice he did for the party during the 2020 assembly polls. The BJP had already announced the candidature of Hari from Alinangar seat in the 2020 assembly polls and he was allotted the party symbol. But almost in the eleventh hour, the BJP did a pre-poll alliance with VIP’s Mukesh and allotted him 11 seats across the state including Alinagar in Darbhanga district. At the order of the BJP leadership, Hari happily returned the party symbol and facilitated Mishri Lal Yadav (VIP) to contest as the Mukesh candidate from Alinagar. Mishri won the assembly polls, but recently returned to the BJP with two other VIP MLAs. As Hari had left his candidature for Mukesh’s party, the BJP thought to reward him when Muesh and his party had already been shown exit door from the BJP.
Hari belongs to the same fisherman community to which Mukesh and Ajrun belong.
BJP’s second candidate Anil Sharma, who hails from a Bhumihar family from Jehanabad, has been with the party for more than 20 years. In the past, he held many important responsibilities in the party’s state unit as well as national unit of BJP Kisan Morcha.
With the announcement of its two candidates and denial of ticket to Mukesh, the BJP has finally closed all its doors for the VIP leader who would no longer be an MLC after July 21 this year.
