Paswan

New Delhi, Nov. 2: Ram Vilas Paswan today released the names of 46 Muslim contestants for the Bihar Assembly elections to silence rivals who had dubbed his demand for a Muslim chief minister “hollow”.

Coming out with the final list of candidates today, the Lok Janshakti Party president claimed that this is the highest number of Muslim candidates fielded by any “mainstream” political party.

Although Paswan has been pressing the demand for a Muslim chief minister since the last Assembly elections in February, his party does not have a single legislator from the minority community.

His opponents have, therefore, made light of the LJP’s “hollow” overture towards the Muslims with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav mocking him for being unable to present a single Muslim candidate eligible for the chief minister’s chair.

This time, though, Paswan has given tickets to a large number of Muslims.

“They will all win,” he said, adding that there would be “several eligible candidates this time”.

Paswan has also fielded 18 women, a number he claims is the highest in Bihar. “It is still not 33 per cent. But there is no law for that as yet. In fact, it is more than enough that we have given tickets to so many women.”

Although Muslims and women figure prominently on the final list, the musclemen are almost missing. But Paswan still has the covert support of bigwigs like Suraj Bhan, the LJP MP from Begusarai and one of Bihar’s biggest musclemen.

Rajan Tiwari from Govindgunj and Nalini Ranjan Sharma, also known as Lallan Singh, the contestant from Mokama, are the only familiar musclemen in the LJP fold. Lallan is closely related to Suraj Bhan.

The rest of the big “names”, like Munna Shukla, have migrated to the Janata Dal (United).

“They have set fire to a poor man’s hut,” Paswan had said recently, referring to the Dal (U)’s drive to spirit away most of his musclemen-cum-legislators.

About 18 LJP legislators are contesting on Dal (U) ticket this time.