Bihar: RJD candidate gets Pappu Yadav's 'support' in Rupauli bypoll

Patna: Independent MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who swears by his loyalty to the Congress, on Monday announced "full support" to the RJD candidate he had defeated in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

Yadav announced his support to Bima Bharti, whom he did not mention by name, for the bypoll to the Rupauli assembly seat that is a part of his Purnea Lok Sabha constituency.

"Ideology is a big thing, though it may be on the disappearing from politics. But.... I am with the ideology of the Congress. Hence, my full support, in the Rupauli assembly by-poll, is to the candidate backed by the Congress, notwithstanding the personal hatred against me that has been on display," the MP declared on X.

The allusion was to the perceived aversion of RJD, especially its de facto leader Tejashwi Yadav, towards the Purnea strongman who had wished to contest as a Congress candidate, having merged his Jan Adhikar Party with the national party.

He entered the fray as an Independent after the Congress expressed its unwillingness to engage in a "friendly fight" with the RJD, its senior ally in Bihar.

Yadav wrested the seat from two-term JD(U) MP Santosh Kushwaha while Bharti, who stood as the RJD candidate, finished a distant third and forfeited her deposit.

The assembly by-poll has been necessitated by the resignation of Bharti, who had given up her Vidhan Sabha membership a few months ago when she also quit Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) to join RJD.

The announcement of the local MP, on a day the campaign for the by-election came to an end, is being as a shot in the arm for Bharti who seeks to retain the seat she has won on the trot since 2005, once for RJD and thrice for JD(U).

The assembly constituency is witnessing a three-cornered contest between Bharti, JD(U) candidate Kaladhar Prasad Mandal and former LJP MLA Shankar Singh who is in the fray as an Independent.