Fernandes, Digvijay Singh missing from JD(U) list of 25

NEWDELHI: Overlooking the protests made by former party chief and ex-defenceminister George Fernandes, the Janta Dal (United) on Sunday announced thecandidature of Jai Narayan Nishad from Muzaffarpur while releasing its list of25 candidates for the 15th Lok Sabha elections.Party hopper Nishadand Magani Lal Mandal, who had just quit RJD after being denied ticket, areamong the JD(U)'s 25 candidates for the April-May parliamentarypolls.Like Fernandes, former Union minister Digvijay Singh too hasbeen denied a ticket. In protest, both Fernandes and Singh announced that theywould contest the polls as independents from Muzaffarpur and Bankarespectively.JD(U) president and acting convenor of NDA SharadYadav, while announcing the names, said Fernandes was denied the ticket owing tohis poor health. The party has, however, offered him an RS seat. "We offered himRajya Sabha ticket given his long contribution," Yadav said.JD(U)hopes to garner significant backward class votes using Nishad and Mandal, bothof whom are from the backward community. Mandal is a candidate fromJhanjharpur.On denial of ticket to Digvijay Singh, the JD(U) chiefsaid, "He is not being given the ticket as his constituency profile has changedafter delimitation. Moreover, he is also a member of the Rajya Sabha." DamodarRawat will be the JD(U) candidate from Banka for which Digvijay had laid hisclaim.The BJP and JD(U) had reached a seat sharing pact on March 13when Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar met BJP president L K Advani at thelatter's residence in the Capital. It was decided that while JD(U) would contest25 seats, BJP would get 15.Sharad Yadav will contest from Madhepurafrom where he had lost the 2004 elections. Prabhunath Singh (Maharajganj), RajivRanjan Singh Lallan (Munger) and Meena Singh (Arrah) have been giventickets.Vetern socialist leader and former Bihar CM Ram Sunder Daswill be the party's candidate from Hajipur while Vijay Shukla alias Munna Shuklawill contest the Vaishali seat. Purnmasi Ram, an MLA, will contest from the SCreserved constituency of Gopalganj.