The party has fielded the sons of two former chief ministers, Dr Jagannath Mishra and Ram Sundar Das.

Former minister Nitish Mishra is once again contesting from Jhanjharpur, while Ram Sundar Das’s son Sanjay Kumar has been fielded from the Rajapakar assembly constituency. Rajapakar shot into news when 10 Nuts were lynched on the suspicion of being thieves a couple of years back. Das senior defeated Ram Vilas Paswan in the last year Lok Sabha election from Hajipur.

As if that was not enough. Rahul Sharma is the party’s nominee from Ghosi. He is son of the Jehanabad MP Jagdish Sharma. The latter has been representing this constituency since 1977.
Last year when he got elected to Parliament he fielded his wife, who won as Independent. This was followed by war of words between chief minister Nitish Kumar and Jagdish Sharma and the latter was suspended from the party. However, he was taken back into the party fold early this year. Now instead of wife, his son was given ticket.

Bihar minister Narendra Singh’s another son Ajay Pratap Singh will contest from Jamui. Earlier, his elder son Abhay Singh used to represent the seat. However, Abhay reportedly killed his wife and then committed suicide in minister’s own residence last February. The incident shocked the naion as it took place in the high-security zone, not far away from Raj Bhawan and chief minister’s residence.

Another rising son is Sarfaraz Alam. Son of former Union minister Mohammad Taslimuddin, he has been given ticket from the Jokihat seat. Last time he lost on RJD ticket.

Exploding the myth of good governance and clean politics the Janata Dal (United) has also given ticket to close relatives of convicted criminals. It has fielded Nand Kumar Rai, brother of its convicted MLA Shashi Kumar Rai, from Baruraj and Gulzar Devi, wife of another convicted legislator Deonath Yadav, from Phulparas.

Janata Dal (United) is a party with a difference. It has not only given ticket to sons, but also to a father. Ramsewak Hazari, father of Lok Sabha MP Maheshwar Hazari, and Sujata Devi, wife of MP Vishwamohan Sharma are party’s nominees.

However, the party refused to give tickets to sons of MPs from Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur-Purnamasi Ram and Captain Jai Narain Nishad respectively. Ram’s son Vijay Kumar Ram will contest from Harsiddhi on a Congress ticket.

Congress has also given ticket to Nishad’s daughter-in-law Rama from the Hajipur seat.

The son of another Janata Dal (United) MP, Mahabali Singh, is being fielded by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which has also given ticket to Faraz Fatmi, son of former Union minister MAA Fatmi, from Keoti.

The party has fielded another former Union minister Raghunath Jha’s son Ajit Kumar Jha from the Sheohar constituency.
Rana Randhir, son of former minister Sitaram Singh, has got the RJD ticket from Madhuban.

In contrast RJD MP Jagdanand Singh’s son Sudhakar has been given ticket by the BJP from Buxar.

The two brothers of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan are also contesting. They are former MP Ramchandra Paswan and Pashupati Kumar Paras from Kusheshwar Asthan and Alouli respectively. Another relative of Paswan, Sarita Devi, has got the ticket from Sonbarsa.

Yasmin Ali, the wife of party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sabir Ali has got the ticket from Narkatiyaganj while Ramesh Singh, brother-in-law of party vice-president Suraj Bhan Singh, will contest from the Vibhutipur seat. The party's candidate from Gobindganj seat is Raju Tiwari, brother of former legislator Rajan Tiwari who has been convicted in a murder case.

Comment

comments...

Things should not be analyzed by its face value.
Dynastic mentality adopted by a political party can’t be compared by the fact that some one from the other party has given ticket to the son of its party leader.
Being the son of a politician should not be a curse. If the son of a politician has the Merit then what is the problem in his being catapulted to the politician dom.
We, who are living outside the state, feel the change which has been brought by the NITISH government.

Sanjeet Kumar
Kolkata

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Its strange to see Bihartimes reacting against JD-U constantly for past few months. And this "rising sons of Janta Dal-U" just put stamp on that. I think even Ajayji knows well about three of the names given in this article: Nitish Mishra, Sanjay Kumar and Ajay Pratap Singh. Those who know these guys even by far and by work they and their families have done, would never object on their selection as the candidates. World knows how educated, globally exposed and concerned young politician Nitish Mishra is. He was chosen as MTV youth Icon too. His records is much higher than other media hyped so called youth future of India like Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia. I would go on to say that seeing his potential he deserves a cabinet seat in Union in fact. We need such young leaders. And there was a time when he was dumped by Nitish Kumar!

Sameway Sanjay Kumar has kept himself completely away from any controversy despite of the fact that he belonged to a true JPite family which was thoroughly decent and socialist in true sense instead of opportunists like Lallu and Co. And finally coming to Ajay Pratap Singh, I think his family deserves this patronage given the fact that JDU has been made a success story due to extensive ground work by people like them, who have been consistently honest and clean and did purely developmental jobs instead of castism.

Nitish Kumar too has a son, but we never hear about him, his family guys, his relatives. But go to RJD and LJP, from Lalu's son Tejaswi to Paswan's brother every one is there to contest and contest for CM seat! People see and know the difference where it is really. JD-U and BJP have been so far non-dynastic and certainly to some extent the new emerging Congress in Bihar too.

Ravi Shankar