Left parties out of Mahagatbandhan in Bihar; Kanhaiya Kumar to contest on CPI's ticket
Patna: Left parties of Bihar Saturday slammed the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) for excluding them in the seat-sharing formula saying the decision was not in sync with the ground realities in the state.
The CPI (ML) Liberation, the major Left party in Bihar, said it would now contest in five seats and extend support to the CPI and the CPI (M) which have declared their nominees for two Lok Sabha constituencies.
The party has announced that it would be fielding former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai. The NDA has fielded firebrand BJP leader and Union minister Giriraj Singh from the seat.
The decision was taken by the Left on Saturday, a day after Mr Kumar was left out of the opposition coalition in Bihar. He will be joint candidate of the Left parties from Begusarai.
New entrants to the Grand Alliance Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and Mukesh Sahni's Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) will field candidates on five and three seats respectively. Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) has been given three seats.
"The Left had, on its own, decided to contest very few seats this time in order to prevent division of anti-BJP votes. The manner in which the seats have been allocated can be called anything but just," Kunal added.
The CPI(ML) has already announced candidature of Raju Yadav, from Ara. The NDA has fielded Union minister R K Singh, the sitting BJP MP, from the seat.
CPI(M) state secretary Awadhesh told PTI that the party politburo has objected to the manner in which the seat-sharing formula was announced, keeping the Left out of the formation.
"We have decided to field young member of our state secretariat Ajay Kumar from Ujiarpur. We will be supporting other Left parties in seats where they field their candidates," Awadhesh said.
The NDA has fielded state BJP state president and sitting MP Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur.
Announcement of the seat-sharing formula by the Grand Alliance had evoked resentment from CPI secretary general Sudhakar Reddy on Friday.
"We had an understanding with Lalu Prasad Yadav, but he is in jail. So, I don't know how things have been conveyed to his son (Tejashwi Yadav). He had agreed for six seats including Begusarai and Madhubani," Reddy had said.
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Five year old boy mauled to death by stray dogs in Jharkhand's Dhanbad
Dhanbad (PTI): A five-year-old boy was mauled to death by stray dogs in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, police said on Sunday.
The incident happened on Friday at Yadav Basti in Bholanath Baseria, within the Goududih police outpost, when the boy stepped out to play, they said.
"The victim boy was mauled to death after being attacked by a pack of stray dogs. The incident happened when the boy was playing a short distance from his house. Due to severe injuries, he died on the spot," said Lov Choudhary, the officer in charge of Gondudih police station.
The OC said that the bereaved family members approached the police station and demanded compensation. They were then asked to send the victim's body for a post-mortem examination, but they refused.
