Such is the all-consuming need for Assembly poll tickets among some politicians in Bihar that they would not join a party without getting its tickets to contest elections! The latest incident of this kind has come from the Congress.
Three candidates of the Congress formally joined the party hours after making themselves sure again and again that their names figured in the party’s latest official list of candidates. On top of it, what came as a shock to many senior Congress leaders was the fact that these three candidates were reportedly recommended by sitting RJD MP Umashankar Singh.
Congress sources said Dharmendra Kumar Verma, Dr Shiv Kumar Singh and Shailesh Kumar Singh — who were given Congress tickets from Goriakothi, Ekma and Baniyapur Assembly constituencies respectively — refused to join the Congress before being declared as the party’s candidates for the upcoming polls.
“They formally joined the Congress over seven hours after confirming with dozens of their reliable sources that they were in fact given the party’s tickets,” said a senior Congress leader.
He also said the three upper-caste candidates had come with “strong, insisting recommendations” from RJD MP Umashankar Singh, whose relations with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav turned sour last month.
The Congress, which is contesting on its own in Bihar and is fielding candidates in all the 243 constituencies, has become the most attractive venue for resourceful and politically ambitious people wishing to become legislators.
Congress workers across Bihar are currently up in arms against the party’s allocation of tickets to scores of candidates who the protesters describe are outsiders and utterly unworthy.