We never laid claim on any sitting seat of allies : Ram Vilas Paswan

Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday sought to come clean in the face of the controversy over Union minister Giriraj Singh's Nawada seat being alloted to his party asserting that the LJP had never laid any claim on its own on a sitting seat of its allies, the BJP and the JD(U).

At no point of time did we insist on laying claim on any of the sitting seats of our allies the BJP and the JD(U). But when JD(U) expressed the desire to contest Munger, which was our (LJP's) sitting seat, we had simply requested that since our MP from that seat was a Bhumihar we should be compensated with some other constituency where the caste had a sizeable presence," Paswan told reporters here.

JD(U) is fielding its chief Nitish Kumar's close aide Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan from Munger which is at present held by LJPs Veena Devi, the wife of mafia don-turned-politician Suraj Bhan Singh.

The two seats that we could have considered were Begusarai and Nawada. Chirag (Paswan's son and LJP heir apparent) had asked Giriraj Singh a number of times if he had any problems if we took Nawada and the BJP leader was deeply touched by his humility," Paswan claimed.

Singh, a firebrand BJP leader, had gone into a sulk on being asked by his party to contest from Begusarai, where CPI has fielded former JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

He had blamed the state leadership for being made to give up Nawada and had even said that no other union minister from Bihar has been made to give up his sitting seat.

The CPI has strong influence in Begusarai, which is known as the 'Moscow of Bihar'.

The RJD is likely to field Tanveer Hassan, who had lost to the late BJP MP Bhola Singh by a margin of under 60,000 votes in the 2014 elections in the seat.

As per the NDA list of candidates for 39 out of 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar announced on Saturday last, Suraj Bhan Singhs brother Chandan Kumar will contest from Nawada. He will be pitted against RJDs Vibha Devi the spouse of jailed former MLA Raj Vallabh Yadav who was disqualified recently following conviction in a rape case.

In the outgoing Lok Sabha, LJP has six MPs. Paswan himself represents Hajipur which will be contested by his younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras this time.

Paswan had said he would enter the Parliament through the Rajya Sabha.

Asked about the proposed NYAY scheme of the Congress which would guarantee a minimum income of Rs 72,000 per year to every poor household, Paswan wondered why the party failed to do so when it ruled the country for decades and was making such a promise before the election this time.

Paswan also announced that his party has decided to field Khagaria MP Mahboob Ali Kaisar from his sitting seat the only constituency for which candidate was not announced by the NDA.

Kaiser, a former state president of the Congress, had joined the LJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He is the second Muslim candidate fielded by the BJP-led coalition in Bihar, the other being JD(U)s Mahmood Ashraf from Kishanganj.