Paswan releases lists for Bihar, Jharkhand

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday released names of candidates for Bihar and Jharkhand for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. They include
wives of two don-turned politicians, a don, a filmmaker besides he himself and his brother.

Under a seat pact with RJD, LJP is contesting 12 out of 40 LS seats in Bihar while in Jharkhand five.

The LJP Bihar list includes filmmaker Prakash Jha from Pashchimi Champaran and Katihar Medical College founder Ashfaque Karim from Katihar. The party has fielded two women: Veena Singh, wife of don-turned-MP Surajbhan Singh who could not get permission from court to contest in view of his conviction in a case, from Nalanda and Ranjita Ranjan MP from Supaul. Ranjan is wife of controversial RJD MP Pappu Yadav. The two Muslims fielded by the party are Karim and Zakir Anwar (Araria).

Tainted MLA Ram Kishore Singh alias Rama Singh will contest from Ara and JD(U) deserter Satish Kumar from Nalanda. Paswan himself will contest from his old constituency Hajipur and his brother Ramchandra Paswan from Samastipur.

Paswan also announced three candidates for Jharkhand: Salahuddin Ansari (Godda), Nityanand Mahto (Hazaribagh) and Birendra Pradhan (Dhanbad). LJP will contest five seats there and names of the two remaining candidates will be announced later.

Paswan also said that LJP and RJD have cemented their relations in course of seat-sharing talks and the alliance between the two parties will continue even in the next assembly elections in Bihar in 2010.

He blamed Congress for the collapse of the alliance in Bihar and Jharkhand even as he hoped unity in the post-poll situation.

"Fact is that neither Congress nor RJD/LJP can form government on their own. The UPA government will be formed with the support of all the allies," he said. "But Congress alone does not mean UPA. In Bihar, main constituents of UPA are RJD and LJP and not Congress," he added.