Bihar: Lovely Anand, three others join Congress

PATNA: Former MP Lovely Anand and three other prominent leaders of different political parties joined the Congress at the party’s headquarters Sadaquat Ashram here on Friday. Lovely is the wife of jailed don-turned-politician Anand Mohan.The others who joined the Congress were Pramod Kumar Singh (LJP), Pradumn Rai (BJP) and Rajeshwar Prasad Singh (RLSP, Arun group). Pramod had contested the 2015 assembly election from Rafiganj on LJP ticket. Pradumn is the district board member in Siwan for the fourth consecutive term.Congress’s incharge for Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil, AICC secretary incharge Birendra Singh Rathore and state Congress president Madan Mohan Jha welcomed them into the party.Lovely had shot into fame by defeating the then Janata Dal candidate Kishori Sinha (wife of former Bihar CM late Satyendra Narayan Sinha and mother of former Kerala governor Nikhil Kumar) in a byelection from Vaishali Lok Sabha constituency in 1994. Speculation is rife that she might be fielded from Sheohar Lok Sabha seat. But, Gohil denied any such promise to anyone and said all the four leaders joined the Congress without any condition.But Congress insiders said Lovely wants to contest the coming Lok Sabha election from Sheohar, which was represented by her husband twice in the past. Anand Mohan is currently serving a life sentence in Saharsa jail on the charges of murdering IAS officer and the then Gopalganj DM G Krishnaiah near Muzaffarpur.Lovely herself had unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and the state assembly election the following year on a Congress ticket from Sheohar. But she left Congress in 2014 alleging that she was being neglected. She contested from Sheohar in 2014 Lok Sabha election as a Samajwadi Party candidate, but lost her security deposit. Gohil said senior leaders of other parties were joining Congress because of its increasing popularity among the masses in Bihar.To a question, Gohil said the Grand Alliance in Bihar was fully intact and seat-sharing among its partners would be done amicably at an appropriate time.