Bihar Elections 2020: 'NCP not given space' by RJD & Congress; will contest polls alone

Ahead of Bihar elections, National Congress Party (NCP) senior leader Praful Patel on October 13 announced that the party is not a part of Bihar Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan). While speaking about this further, he said that NCP wanted to be a part of the alliance but was not given space. "NCP isn't a part of Bihar Mahagathbandhan," Patel added. 

Patel said, "NCP isn't a part of Bihar Mahagathbandhan. We wanted to, but we weren't given space, so we'll contest alone. We've not had any discussion with Shiv Sena. Party workers demanded that we contest on our own, so we'll fight the election alone."

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NCP to contest Bihar elections independently

Patel on Tuesday said that as per the demands of the party workers, NCP will be contesting Bihar elections alone. Though NCP is a part of Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, Patel said that they have not yet had any discussion with Shiv Sena. The party chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase informed that NCP president Sharad Pawar will be the party's key star campaigner for the Bihar Assembly Polls. 

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NCP party chief spokesperson said, "NCP will nominate its candidates for Bihar assembly elections. Sharad Pawar will do election campaigning in Bihar."

Earlier in the day, Bhojpuri actors Sudeep Pandey and Deepa Pandey joined the NCP party in the presence of senior party leaders Praful Patel and Jayant Patil. Elections for the 243-member Bihar Assembly will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7. The counting of votes will be done on November 10. 

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Bihar Elections: Tej Pratap Yadav files nomination from Hasanpur

It is finally clear that RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav will be contesting the upcoming Bihar elections from Hasanpur constituency as he filed nomination papers on Tuesday. His younger brother and CM-face of RJD Tejashwi Yadav was also present as the former health minister of the state filed his nomination papers in Hasanpur amid the crowd cheering for him.

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Tej Pratap has abandoned the Mahua constituency in Vaishali district from where he was elected in 2015, and if rumours are to be believed, the reason for shifting to Hasanpur is that his estranged wife Aishwarya Rai may contest from his Mahua seat. His father-in-law Chandrika Rai joined the JDU days before the elections and is contesting from Parsa constituency. Both Hasanpur and Raghopur will go to polls in the second phase of assembly elections - November 3

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(With ANI inputs)