Patna: RJD leader and former chief minister Rabri Devi.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal on Friday decided to back Rabri Devi, former Bihar chief minister and wife of the party's founding president Lalu Prasad, for yet another term in the legislative council.
According to a statement issued by the party, it will field four candidates, including Rabri Devi, besides supporting Shashi Yadav of CPI(ML) Liberation in the biennial polls due later this month.
The other RJD candidates are veteran leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui, national general secretary Syed Faisal Ali and former head of the women's wing, Urmila Thakur.
All the candidates are likely to file their nomination papers on Monday, a party official said.
The choice of Thakur may have been aimed at playing the EBC (extremely backward classes) card, and sending the message across that women workers had a future in RJD.
The candidature of Siddiqui, a former minister who has for some time been in wilderness, and Ali, who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on a RJD ticket, seems to be a reassurance to Muslims who have been loyal towards the party for decades.
Biennial polls are to be held for 11 seats of the legislative council, where terms of the sitting members are to expire in May.
While one of these seats was held by Prem Chandra Mishra of the Congress, the party is understood to have given up its claim this time in exchange for the support received from 12 MLAs of the CPI(ML)L in securing a second consecutive Rajya Sabha term for BPCC president Akhilesh Prasad Singh.
From the ruling NDA, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), his party colleague Khalid Anwar and cabinet colleague Santosh Suman have already filed their nomination papers.
The BJP, which is helping Suman, whose Hindustani Awam Morcha has only four MLAs, is also likely to field at least three candidates of its own, though the names have not been announced yet.