'If you want a bright future of Bihar and your children, I urge you not to vote for anyone with a criminal background or corrupt candidates even if they belong to your caste.'
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister R K Singh has appealed to voters in Bihar not to vote for candidates with a 'apradhik chhavi' (criminal image).
'If you want a bright future of Bihar and your children, I urge you not to vote for anyone with a criminal background or corrupt candidates even if they belong to your caste,' R K Singh, who served as India's home secretary before turning to politics, stated on his social media.
'If all the candidates facing you are corrupt and criminal, cast your vote for NOTA. If you choose someone with a criminal background or corrupt, crime and corruption will continue to dominate Bihar and Bihar will never develop,' R K Singh, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Ara in the 2019 election, said.
R K Singh said the BJP candidate from Tarapur is Samrat Choudhary, one of Bihar's deputy chief ministers who has been accused by Prashant Kishor of the Jan Suraaj party of evading a murder charge by then claiming he was juvenile.
There are several candidates with a criminal background in the fray this time, R K Singh said, including the Janata Dal-United's bahubali candidate from Mokama Anant Singh, who faces several serious criminal cases.
R K Singh also mentioned Surajbhan Singh, another bahubali who has pitted his wife as the Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate against Anant Singh in Mokama, Rajballabh Yadav, who was charged under the POSCO Act and fielded his wife as a JD-U candidate from Nawada.
Singh also cited Osama Sahab, the son of the late dreaded criminal-politician Mohammad Shahabuddin, and Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, the JD-U candidate from Jagdishpur who was accused of murder.
Meanwhle, the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Monday released its list of 143 candidates for the Bihar assembly polls.
October 20 is the last day for filing of nominations for the second phase of the polls on November 11. The filing of nominations for the first phase of the election on October 6 ended last week.
There are 24 women in the RJD's list of candidates besides 9 Muslim candidates.
The RJD has fielded candidates in 12 seats against its Congress ally.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
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