The actor-turned-politician whose criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grown progressively sharper, didn't figure on the BJP's list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
The National Democratic Alliance in a press conference, announced the seat sharing agreement on Saturday for the state of Bihar. Bharatiya Janata Party will contest from 17 seats, Nitish Kumar-led Janta Dal-United will contest from 17 seats and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party has been given six seats.
One of the biggest takeaways from the press conference was that Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will be the BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Patna Sahib, the parliamentary constituency of Shatrughan Sinha, who has been unhappy with the BJP for past couple of years. In fact, according to reports, the actor-turned-politician may contest for the polls from Congress from Patna Sahib.
Sinha has been publicly criticising the party leadership and the prime minister.
It was also announced that LJP chief and BJP ally Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan will not contest polls from the Hajipur seat. The party has fielded Paswan's younger brother Pasupati Kumar Paras in his place. Paswan's son -- Chirag -- will contest from the Jamui seat, the one he won in 2014.
The BJP has also shifted its firebrand leader Giriraj Singh from the Nawada seat to Begusarai seat. Additionally, Minister of State Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been announced as NDA's Lok Sabha election candidate from Saran constituency while Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh will fight from East Champaran.
The list also included the names of Ramkirpal Yadav who will contest from Patliputra, RK Singh from Arrah and Ashwani Choubey from Buxar.
However, one name missing from the list was of former Union Minister Shahnawaz Hussain.
Bihar is one among those states of the country which will go for polling during all the seven phases of Lok Sabha elections.
In Bihar, the different constituencies will see elections on April 11, 18, 23, and 29 and May 6, 12 and 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
-- With inputs from Agencies
