Patna,(BiharTimes): Now that the selection of candidates has been finalized and in most constituencies the nomination papers have been filed an analysis of the constituencies would reveal that all the three major players––the BJP-LJP-RLSP, the RJD-Congress-NCP and Janata Dal (United)-CPI––seriously failed in their bid to put up 40 candidates for the Lok Sabha seats.

In the absence of candidates of their own they have to rely heavily on the borrowed candidates to contest the election.

Interestingly, the BJP, which has been making the tallest claims, faced the most difficult task in the choice of candidates.

Notwithstanding the claim of sweeping the election the party actually did not have even the candidate of its own to contest the Patliputra seat.

Luckily it was RJD’s Ram Kripal Yadav, who rebelled from his party and provided the saffron party an opportunity to field a better candidate. He replaced Nawal Kishore Yadav at the eleventh hour. Nawal too is no big name. But he too was an RJD MLC till August, when he was expelled from the party for praising NaMo.

Minus these two Yadav turncoats the BJP had no strong candidates of its own to contest this most prestigious seat situated in the suburb of the state capital.

Take the case of Patna Saheb. The party could not change its candidate, Shatrughan Sinha, notwithstanding the fact that he openly preferred Lal Krishna Advani over Narendra Modi. Not only that he publicly criticized the CBI court ruling against RJD chief, Lalu Yadav, and fully sympathized with him when he called on his wife, Rabri Devi.

Not far back he even praised chief minister Nitish Kumar. All this invited strong criticism from within the BJP, but nobody could dare to replace him.

His performance as an MP too is not very appreciable. In fact some posters appeared in Patna calling Shatrughan Sinha a missing MP.

Yet the BJP could not find his replacement.

Even in constituencies like Madhepura the party has no big leaders to fight election. The party hurriedly made Vijay Kushwaha, wife of Bihar minister, Renu Kushwaha, as its candidate. In fact Vijay joined the party only at NaMo’s Purnea rally on March 10.

Needless to say the saffron party gave away 10 seats to its two allies––the LJP and RSLP. Had this not been the case it would have been more difficult to select strong candidates. This is the position of the party which was in power for seven and a half years and which talks about Narendra Modi wave seeping the state as well as the country.

Strangely, its two allies––the LJP and the RLSP––two found it difficult to get candidates. LJP had to woo Mahboob Ali Qaiser from the Congress to fill the seventh seat.

The Janata Dal (United) has a long list of candidates who crossed over from the other parties at the eleventh hour. Be it Avinish Singh, Akhtar-ul-Iman or Abu Qaiser they all have been borrowed in the recent weeks.
But in the process the party failed to give ticket to Samrat Chaudhary or his father Shakuni Chaudhary, even though the former crossed over from the RJD. The duo have been left high and dry.
The story of Congress party’s candidate from Nalanda, Ashish Ranjan Sinha, is more interesting. This former DGP of Bihar was with the RJD and was hoping to get its ticket from Nalanda. But when under the seat sharing arrangement Nalanda went to the Congress he became disheartened.
But Congress too had a problem. It failed to get any strong candidate for Nalanda. This forced the party to borrow from the alliance partner, the RJD. Lalu requested Ashish Ranjan Sinha to join the Congress party. He did so and got the ticket.

Similar is the condition of Purnamasi Ram, who left the Janata Dal (United) and was about to join the RJD. Once again the Congress sought him as it had no good candidate for Valmikinagar seat. Ram was the MP from Gopalganj in the last Lok Sabha.

In games players are borrowed to make a team strong, but in the electoral politics of 2014 most of the borrowed candidates are not in the position to ensure victory.