Bihar minister Mukesh Sahni on Sunday announced the candidates of his Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) for the elections to the 24 seats in the Legislative Council, prompting calls for his tussle with the NDA. The interesting thing is that the BJP has fielded its candidates on the seven seats the VIP wants to contest. Sahni has also said that he will not give up his claim on the Bochahan assembly seat. The by-election has been declared here.
Adarsh Kumar from Samastipur, Jai Jai Ram Sahni from Begusarai-Khagaria, Chandan Kumar from Saharsa-Madhepura-Supaul, Bal Mukund Chauhan from Saran, Govind Bind from Rohtas-Kaimur, Shyama Nand Singh from Purnia-Araria-Kishanganj and from Darbhanga Baidyanath Sahni has been nominated as the candidate.
For the elections to be held for 24 MLC seats, BJP has fielded candidates for 12 seats while Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dalyu has fielded candidates on 11 seats. Both the parties have left one seat for the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party of Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras. Sahni has announced to field VIP candidates in seven seats and support to NDA candidates in 15 other seats.
Sahni was included in the NDA after the 2020 assembly elections at the behest of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. At that time he left the RJD’s grand alliance and went to meet Shah. The relationship between Sahni and the BJP had soured during the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Sahni’s party contested more than 50 seats in Uttar Pradesh. But his performance was lackluster.
Voting for the Legislative Council seats in Bihar will be held on April 4. Mukesh Sahni had sought seats for himself from the NDA but the BJP-JDU had rejected his demand outright. VIP says that BJP is talking about taking allies into confidence regarding the Legislative Council elections, but someone is taken into confidence before doing any work and not after. The leaders of BJP and JDU did not contact the VIPs before announcing the seats.