Lalu's sons make their electoral debut

Former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav will launch his two sons from the Mahua and Raghopur assembly constituencies -- both considered to be 'safe' seats -- in Vaishali district of Bihar, reports M I Khan.

The names of Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief Lalu Prasad’s sons -- Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav -- figure in the list of 242 candidates released by the grand alliance of the Janata Dal-United, the RJD and the Congress on Wednesday.

Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap, 27, will contest from the Mahua assembly constituency while younger son Tejaswi, 25, will contest from the Raghopur assembly constituency. Both the seats in Vaishali district were with the JD-U in 2010.

“The RJD will field Lalu’s two sons to formally launch their political careers,” a spokesperson said.

Both Mahua and Raghopur are adjacent constituencies in the Vaishali district, not far away from Patna.

Vaishali is considered the stronghold of the RJD. Both Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, won several elections that took place between 1995 to 2010 from the Raghopur seat.

Tejaswi, a cricketer-turned-politician, is a popular face of the party. He was last seen with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi at a rally in West Champaran district.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded former RJD member of legislative assembly Satish Kumar Yadav from Raghopur. Satish joined the party hours before he was declared the candidate to contest from Raghopur.

Satish quit the JD-U after he was denied the ticket since Raghopur was given to the RJD as per the seat adjustment of the grand alliance.

Satish, once a close aide of Rabri, had defeated her in 2010 by 63,000 votes.

As per the seat-sharing agreement, the JD-U and the RJD are contesting 101 seats each while the Congress is contesting from 41 seats. The name of the candidate for Rajgir (SC) seat would be declared later, a source said.

With inputs from PTI