Political Drama Unfolds In Bihar As RJD Leaders Asked To Return Party Symbols Given By Lalu Yadav

Political Drama Unfolds In Bihar As RJD Leaders Asked To Return Party Symbols Given By Lalu Yadav

As the political fervour heats up in Bihar, a late-night development made waves in the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) camp as leaders, who were given party symbols for the upcoming Assembly elections on Monday evening, were called late at night and asked to return the symbols, as per reports.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who returned from a recent visit to Delhi, found a huge crowd of ticket aspirants waiting outside the gates of his residence at 10, Circular Road. Some of the aspirants then went inside after apparently receiving calls from the party leadership and emerged with yellow envelopes, indicating the party's poll picks, NDTV reported.

This came despite the Opposition INDIA Bloc, helmed by the RJD in Bihar, being unable to form a consensus on seat-sharing for the upcoming Assembly elections.

It was not known exactly how many candidates got the party ticket on a day when filing of nominations for the second and final phase of polls began, and only four days were left for candidates of the first leg to submit their papers.

Some prominent leaders, including Sunil Singh (Parbatta), who quit Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) recently, and Narendra Kumar Singh alias Bogo, a several-term former MLA from Matihani, had received the RJD symbols. Their candidature was seen as a part of RJD chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav's strategy to win over a section of Bhumihars, a powerful upper caste which has traditionally supported the BJP-led NDA.

Several sitting RJD MLAs like Bhai Virendra, Chandrashekhar Yadav (Madhepura) and Israil Mansuri (Kanti) also came out of the party supremo's house, waving the party symbol.

In a dramatic last-minute twist, RJD leaders who had received the party symbols were asked to return them hours after Tejashwi Yadav reached his Patna residence after returning from Delhi. All RJD leaders who received party symbols that evening were later called and asked to visit his residence to return them, as per NDTV.

Party leaders were reportedly not clearly told as to why the leadership had asked them to return the symbols. However, some leaders claimed that no one received the symbol and the photos on social media were AI-generated.

This came as the Mahagathbandhan parties are yet to announce their seat-sharing plans for the upcoming polls. There have been reports of differences persisting between the Congress and RJD – the two principal opposition parties. While Lalu Prasad Yadav does not want the Congress to contest on more than 54 seats in the 243-seat assembly, the grand old party has been more or less non-committal on announcing a chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming polls.

The ruling NDA announced its seat-sharing on Sunday (October 12) after days of brainstorming, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and the BJP deciding to contest 101 constituencies each, and leaving the rest for smaller allies.

The first phase of polling in Bihar will take place on November 6, and the second phase will occur on November 11. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 14.

(with inputs from PTI)

Source: News18
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