Patna: The RJD will send its spokesperson Manoj Jha and Katihar Medical College owner Ahmad Ashfaque Karim to the Rajya Sabha, the party's state unit president Ram Chandra Purbey announced on Sunday.

"RJD chief Lalu Prasadji has decided the candidates," Purbey said, flanked by close Lalu aide Bhola Yadav.

Party sources said that by giving a ticket to an upper caste person (Jha), the RJD first family has tried to reach out beyond the Muslim-Yadav combination. In the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, the RJD did not give a single ticket to a person from the upper castes.

"As Manoj belongs to the Tejashwi Yadav camp, the ticket proves that the young leader wants to do progressive politics. People associate the RJD with the Muslim-Yadav combination but Tejashwi is changing the discourse," a senior party leader said.

Manoj is the person who had pointed Lalu to RSS ideologue MS Golwalkar's book, Bunch of Thoughts, which the RJD chief weaponized after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had spoken about review of reservation before the 2015 Assembly polls. Manoj has been loyal to the RJD since 2010 when he was made national spokesperson, though he was associated with the Left in student days. A PhD holder from Delhi University, he was teacher in Jamia Millia Islamia university from 1994 to 2002. Since then, he is a Delhi University social work professor.

Karim was among the first to join Samata Party when Nitish Kumar broke off with Lalu in 1994. Karim unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Katihar in 2009 and the 2010 Assembly elections on LJP tickets. In 2013, Patna police had raided his house and found Rs 2 crore.

JDU repeat

The ruling JDU on Sunday announced that it would repeat its Rajya Sabha candidates, Bashishtha Narayan Singh and King Mahendra.