BJP announces candidates for 17 LS seats in Bihar, drops Union minister among 3 sitting MPs

Nine of the candidates are from the upper castes, who are known to be, by and large, BJP supporters in Bihar.

The BJP on Sunday announced its candidates for 17 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, dropping three sitting MPs, including Union Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey.

According to a list of nominees released by the party in New Delhi, Choubey, who was elected from Buxar for the second consecutive term in 2019, was replaced by Mithilesh Tiwari, a senior BJP leader and a former MLA.

The party also dropped its incumbent MPs Chedi Paswan and Ajay Kumar Nishad from Sasaram and Muzaffarpur constituencies respectively.

The BJP fielded former MLA Shivesh Ram for Sasaram, while Raj Bhushan Nishad, a greenhorn in the Lok Sabha polls, would contest the Muzaffarpur seat on a party ticket.

Vivek Thakur, a Rajya Sabha member, was fielded from Nawada, where the BJP would be contesting this time, instead of its ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

All the remaining 14 candidates are sitting MPs, who will seek re-election from their respective seats.

Union ministers R K Singh, Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai will seek re-election from Ara, Begusarai and Ujiarpur Lok Sabha seats respectively.

Former union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad was renominated from Patna Sahib, Radha Mohan Singh from Purvi Champaran, Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran and Ram Kripal Yadav from Patliputra.

Sanjay Jaiswal will contest from Paschim Champaran, Ashok Kumar Yadav from Madhubani, while Pradeep Kumar Singh from Araraia, and Gopal Jee Thakur from Darbhanga will seek re-election.

Janardan Singh Sigriwal from Mahrajganj and Sushil Kumar Singh from Aurangabad were also fielded again. Nine of the candidates are from the upper castes, who are known to be, by and large, BJP supporters in Bihar. BJP sources were also tight-lipped over the party's failure to field a woman candidate in Bihar. In the outgoing Lok Sabha, the party's lone woman MP from the state, Rama Devi, represented Sheohar, a seat which has gone to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) this time.