By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: After Congress party released its first list of candidates for Bihar Assembly elections on Monday, several other parties including LJP, NCP and BJP yesterday released first list of their candidates. All of them including BJP have given tickets to Muslim candidates also.
The Lok Janshakti Party led by Ram Vilas Paswan, who has been raising slogan for Muslim CM and then Dy CM, has disappointed the Muslim community as in the first list for 35 seats the party has given tickets to only 5 Muslims. The party is going to contest on 75 seats. The party is contesting the Bihar Assembly poll in alliance with RJD of Lalu Yadav.
Bihar Assembly
The party fielded Zakir Alam from Araria. Alam had contested last Lok Sabha election unsuccessfully from the Araria constituency on the party ticket and Dr. Shahnawaz Ahmad Kaifi has been allotted ticket from Hayaghat. He had contested 2005 Assembly election unsuccessfully from Darbhanga. Outgoing Bihar Assembly had only one LJP Muslim MLA Izhar Ahmad from Ghanshyampur. Ahmed last week resigned from the party after he was denied ticket and joined JD-U which has given green signal to field him in Gaura Bauram.
LJP Muslim Candidates
1. Zakir Alam from Araria
2. Shahnawaz Alam from Kasba
3. Naushad Alam from Thakurganj
4. Dr. Shahnawaz Ahmad Kaifi from Hayaghat
5. Nek Ahmad from Dhaka
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar which is ally of Congress in Central Government is all set to contest Assembly election here alone. It will contest on selective seats out of total 243. The Party general secretary Tariq Anwar announced the name of 16 candidates for the first phase which includes 5 Muslims. This is highest percentage given to Muslims by any party which has announced their nominees so far. The party did not give chance to its lone sitting Muslim MLA Abdul Jalil from Kadwa.
NCP Muslim candidates
1. Shahjahan Shad from Narpatganj
2. Murshid Alam from Jokihat
3. Mohammad Shakoor Alam from Barari
4. Jamshed Alam from Rupauli
5. Ghulam Hussain from Purnia
The CPI (ML) also released its first list of 48 candidates for first three phases, 16 for each phase. The list has 6 Muslims, 13 Dalits and 4 women. The party has decided to contest on 109 seats out of 243. So far, the party high command has cleared the way for 48 and rest of them will be finalized soon. All the parties of Left Front except CPI-ML (L) did not have any Muslim MLA in the outgoing Bihar Assembly. The CPI-ML (L) had one Muslim MLA Munnaf Alam from Barsoi.
CPI-ML Muslim candidates
1. Niaz Ahmad Siddiqui from Bajpatti
2. Mehboob Alam from Balrampur
3. Serajuddin Ahmad from Barauli
4. Naimuddin Ansari from Siwan
5. Javed Begh from Darbhanga
6. Mohammad Shamshad Ahmad from Mahua
BJP which is going to contest on 102 seats has also released its first list of 87 candidates. Surprisingly, the list has one Muslim candidate Mazharul Bari who will contest from Amour. The constituency has 74.3% Muslim population. Abdul Jaleel Mastan of Congress is sitting MLA from here and this time also he is party’s candidate.
Interestingly, the Bihar Governor has issued notification for the first phase on 27th Sep. and for the second phase today but two major parties–RJD and JD (U)— are yet to officially announce their candidates.