Bima Bharti To Seek Re-Election From Rupauli Assembly Seat On RJD Ticket

Bharti is contesting as the RJD candidate from the seat she had won a number of times for the JD(U), which she quit a few months ago to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

A party-hopper, Bharti lost her deposit in the Purnea Lok Sabha seat, which was wrested by Independent candidate Pappu Yadav from two-term JD(U) MP Santosh Kushwaha.

RJD president Lalu Prasad gave the party symbol to Bharti a day ago but did not formally announce her name, in a manner reminiscent of his conduct during the Lok Sabha polls.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the RJD had unilaterally fielded candidates in a number of seats which were being sought by the Congress and the Left, evoking whimpers of protest from the junior allies.

Notably, in the 2020 assembly polls, the CPI had contested Rupauli for Mahagathbandhan, the INDIA bloc's prototype in Bihar, and the Left party had last week announced that it would fight the bypoll.

However, following the latest development, the state unit of CPI came out with a statement voicing anguish over the RJD's move, but declaring that it will not be fielding a candidate against that of the domineering ally "in the wider interest of national politics".

Meanwhile, former MLA Shankar Singh, who had contested the seat on an LJP ticket in 2020, finishing as the runner-up, has quit the party headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan and announced that he will contest the bypoll as an Independent.

The NDA is backing JD(U) candidate Kamladhar Prasad Mandal, who had contested as an Independent in the assembly polls and recently joined the party headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Filing of nomination papers will continue till Friday and voting is scheduled on July 10.