CONG MAKES A BIG MOVE, RELIES ON 17 MLAs

CONG MAKES A BIG MOVE, RELIES ON 17 MLAs

20-SEP-ENG 7

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

PATNA----------------------------Congress has made a major and surprising decision regarding the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. The party has made it clear that the tickets of 17 current MLAs will not be cut. This means that this time, Congress has reposed its faith in its old guard and announced that it will field them in the electoral battle.

After the State Election Committee meeting in Patna on Thursday, the list of candidates was sent to Delhi. The final list was finalized at a crucial screening committee meeting in New Delhi on Friday. The meeting, chaired by Ajay Maken, was attended by Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, State President Rajesh Ram, Legislative Party leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan, and several senior leaders, including Madan Mohan Jha.

Congress does not want to risk ticket cancellations this time. This is why the decision was taken to field 17 current MLAs again.

The party's confirmed candidates: Araria – Avidur Rahman, Kishanganj – Izaharul Hussain, Kasba – Mohammad Afaq Alam, Kadwa – Shakeel Ahmed Khan, Manihari – Manohar Prasad Singh, Muzaffarpur – Bijendra Chaudhary, Maharajganj – Vijay Shankar Dubey, Rajapakar – Pratima Das, Khagaria – Chhatrapati Yadav, Bhagalpur – Ajit Sharma, Jamalpur – Ajay Kumar Singh, Buxar – Sanjay Kumar Tiwari, Rajpur – Vishwanath Ram, Kargahar – Santosh Mishra, Kutumba – Rajesh Ram, Aurangabad – Anand Shankar Singh, Hisua – Neetu Kumari.

It is noteworthy that in 2020, Congress contested 70 seats under the Grand Alliance, winning only 19. Later, Siddharth Saurav from Bikram and Murari Prasad Gautam from Chenari joined the NDA. As a result, the party's strength was reduced to 17.

Now, Congress's entire focus is on defending and repeating these 17 "setback seats." Following the ticket announcement, there seems to be a sigh of relief within the Congress camp.