BJP’s sitting MP from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur Ajay Kumar Nishad joined the Congress on Tuesday, days after the saffron party denied him a ticket.Nishad vowed to strengthen the Congress in Bihar, and said his primary objective was to shatter the “arrogance of someone”.“Even a person condemned to the gallows is given a final wish but I was not even told once before my ticket was cut,” he said.
Nishad joined the Congress at the AICC headquarters in the presence of Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh, AICC in-charge of state Mohan Prakash, party’s MP from Kishanganj Mohammad Javed and AICC head of media and publicity department Pawan Khera.Nishad thanked the leadership of the Congress and asserted that this would be an election not of ‘dhanbal (money power) but of ‘janta ka bal (people’s might)’.The BJP had dropped its incumbent MP from Muzaffarpur, giving the ticket to Raj Bhushan Nishad.In a post on X addressed to BJP chief JP Nadda, Nishad said that he was “shocked by the betrayal of BJP”.“Respected JP Nadda ji, shocked by the betrayal of BJP, I resign from all posts and primary membership of the party,” Nishad wrote on X.
In Bihar, the BJP has announced its candidates for various constituencies, including Union ministers RK Singh from Arrah, Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, and Giriraj Singh from Begusarai. Former Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Radha Mohan Singh, and Ram Kripal Yadav are also among the candidates.Bihar will go to polls for 40 Lok Sabha seats across all seven phases. In Phase 1, voting will be held on four seats. The state will witness polling on 5 seats each from Phase 2 to Phase 5. In Phases 6 and 7, elections will be held on 8 seats each.