Lok Sabha elections latest: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and former Bihar Chief Minsiter Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Rohini Acharya will fight against the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and ex-Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Saran.
Lalu Prasad Yadav has won from the constituency multiple times in the past. The former Bihar CM represented the seat until his disqualification following his conviction in case linked to the fodder scam. Following this, BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy contested from the seat in the 2014 and the 2019 general elections and won both the polls.
Saran Lok Sabha election results
In the 2019 general elections, Rudy won the seat by over 4.99 lakh votes and a vote share of 51.29 per cent. In 2014, he won in the Saran constituency by more than 3.55 lakh votes and a vote share of 41.12 per cent. This was a close fight as the former Union minister won against RJD's Rabri Devi by a margin of less than 50,000 votes.
Misa Bharti also finds a spot in RJD's candidate list
Moreover, Yadav's elder daughter Dr Misa Bharti has also got a ticket from Pataliputra, where she will face off against BJP's Ram Kripal Yadav. Ram Kripal Yadav has held the Pataliputra Lok Sabha seat since 2014, when he first won it against Janata Dal (United)'s Ranjan Prasad Yadav and Misa Bharti.
Misa Bharti vs Ram Kripal Yadav 3.0
This, however, is not the first time that Bharti will contest against Yadav from the seat. Ram Kripal Yadav defeated Misa Bharti by around 39,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and by roughly 41,000 votes in the 2014 general elections.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Yadav also gave his JD(U) counterpart a massive drubbing as Ranjan Prasad Yadav could manage to garner only 97,228 votes and a vote share of 9.93 per cent.
Full list of RJD candidates
Bima Bharti, who flipphed sides from JDU to RJD during the last government realignment, has been fielded against Pappu Yadav and an NDA candidate from Purnia. Industrialist Deepak Yadav, who flipped sides from BJP to RJD recently, has been fielded from Valmikinagar. Former Bihar minister Alok Mehta will contest from Ujiarpur, as per this list.
RJD remains mum on Siwan
Another highlight of the RJD's candidate list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections was that it gave the Siwan seat a miss. This comes after criminal-politician Mohammed Shahabuddin's widow Hena Shahab declared she would contest as an Independent candidate.
After Shahabuddin was disqualified from contesting elections in 2007 following his conviction for the kidnapping and disappearance of CPI (M-L) activist Chote Lal Gupta, Hena Shahab was fielded as the RJD candidate in the 2009, 2014 and 2019 general polls. She failed to win the seat all the three times.