Council polls: RJD, Congress set for direct fights on 4 seats

Patna: The RJD and Congress are set for direct fights on four of the eight Bihar legislative council seats going to polls on Oct 23, exposing differences within the Grand Alliance (GA) ahead of the elections to four teacher and four graduate constituencies.The RJD has fielded candidates on six seats, including Patna and Saran teacher constituencies and Patna, Darbhanga, Kosi and Tirhut graduate constituencies. It has left Darbhanga teacher for sitting Congress MLC Madan Mohan Jha and Tirhut teacher for sitting CPI MLC Sanjay Kumar Singh.The RJD candidates are former MLA Sanjeev Kumar Singh (Patna teacher), Jairam Yadav (Saran teacher), Dilip Kumar (Patna graduate), Anil Kumar Jha (Darbhanga graduate), Nitesh Kumar (Kosi graduate) and Rashmi Vinayak (Tirhut graduate).The Congress, after fortnight-long deliberations, announced candidates for five seats. Besides Jha from Darbhanga teacher, it has fielded Sanjay Yadav (Patna teacher), Asadullah Khan (Patna graduate), Rajni Kant Pathak (Darbhanga graduate) and Manoj Kumar Jaiswal (Kosi graduate). It has left Tirhut teacher for the CPI.The RJD and Congress will consequently face each other on four seats — Patna teacher, Patna graduate, Darbhanga graduate and Kosi graduate — despite being alliance partners.The differences have also spilled into the Tirhut teacher contest, where Congress state media department head and spokesman Rajesh Rathorre filed his nomination as an independent candidate in Muzaffarpur on Saturday. The seat had been left for the CPI by both RJD and Congress.“I had been making preparations to contest the Tirhut teacher constituency for the last two years. It was in the knowledge of the party’s state chief Rajesh Ram and AICC in-charge of the party’s Bihar affairs Krishna Allavaru,” Rathorre said over the phone. “I don’t know why the party denied me the consent to contest the seat,” he added.Rathorre’s entry has put the Congress in an awkward position while adding another contest to a seat where the GA had sought to avoid a direct fight among its constituents.The council elections are scheduled for Oct 23 with voting to be held for four graduate and four teacher constituencies.You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Patna | Silver Rate in Patna | Bank Holidays in Patna | Public Holidays in Patna | Patna AQI | Weather in Patna | Petrol Price in Patna | Diesel Price in Patna | CNG Price in Patna | LPG Price in PatnaStay updated with the latest Patna news. Download the TOI App.