Council polls: Cong in tight spot in Gaya

Congress nominees for the upcoming legislative council polls for Gaya’s graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies face tough contests in their bid to wrest the two seats from sitting National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates.

For, in addition to the sitting NDA candidates, the Congress nominees are also pitted against candidates of their party’s ruling ‘grand alliance’ partner, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Senior Congress leader and animal husbandry minister Awadhesh Kumar Singh admitted that winning the seats would be a tough challenge. “But given the efforts put in by the party candidates, Ajay Kumar Singh and Hridaya Narayan Yadav, the elections will be interseting”, he said. 

“It is a prestige issue for the Congress, particularly after it chose to ignore the coalition dharma. We had to take the stand after our claim to at least one seat out of the four going to the polls on March 9, was not entertained by the Grand Alliance (GA) partners,” said another senior Congress leader. 

Smelling a design in the Congress’ bid, a senior RJD leader alleged that it had made the scenario difficult for the RJD “under pressure from the JD (U)”.

The RJD has fielded Punit Kumar Singh, son of former minister Jagadanand Singh from Gaya graduates’ constituency and principal of Jehanabad College, Dinesh Yadav for Gaya teachers’ constituency. 

The BJP has fielded its sitting MLC and chairman of the legislative council Awadhesh Narayan Singh from Gaya graduates’ constituency, while the RLSP, another NDA constituent, has put up its sitting candidate Sanjeeva Shyam from the Gaya teachers’ seat.

BJP leader Lalbabu Prasad claimed that the LJP, which has fielded its nominee on Gaya teachers’ seat, might withdraw him in favour of the RLSP candidate, to prevent the pitting of one NDA constituent against another.. 

Congress nominee for Gaya graduates’ seat Ajay Kumar Singh, a former MLC and son of cooperative movement leader lateTapeshwar Singh, claimed that he had a reasonably good prospect of winning the seat because of his familiarity with the voters.

Hridaya Narayan Singh, who is contesting for the teachers’ constituency of Gaya, also exuded confidence that he would offer a tough contest to the contenders.