Bihar: BJP leaves seats lost in 2014 to JD(U)

Patna, Mar 24 (UNI): Bihar NDA has moved cautiously in seat-sharing deal among its allies for Lok Sabha election as BJP avoided contesting seats which it lost in the 2014 poll and instead left them for its ally JD(U).

In 2014, the BJP had lost in Banka, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Katihar, Kishanganj, Araria, Supaul and Madhepura.

The BJP this time gave 7 out of these 8 seats to JD(U). It will field its candidate from Araria.

In seat sharing deal among Bihar NDA allies, BJP and JD(U) will contest 17 seats each while LJP will field its candidates in the remaining six.

BJP has never won from the Banka Lok Sabha constituency, considered the bastion of socialists. Former Bihar chief minister Chandrashekhar Singh, his wife Manorma Singh, socialist leader Madhu Limaye, George Fernandes, B.S. Sharma from Bharatiya Jansangh, former Union minister Digvijay Singh and his wife Putul Kumari had tried their luck from the seat.

In the last general election, RJD candidate Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav had defeated BJP candidate Putul Kumari.

She had emerged victorious in the by-election to Banka seat in 2010 as an Independent candidate. The by-election was necessitated following the death of her husband and the then MP from Banka Digvijay Singh the same year. She as a BJP candidate, however, lost the election from Banka in 2014.

Putul Kumari has already announced that she will contest from Banka seat as an Independent candidate.