Lok Sabha polls: Ram Vilas Paswan to contest from Hajipur, son & brother too get tickets

NEW DELHI: Ram Vilas Paswan, who recently joined hands with BJP, will fight Lok Sabha election from his stronghold of Hajipur in Bihar while names of his son Chirag and brother Ramchander also figure in the list of candidates released by LJP today.

The Lok Janshakti Party chief party announced the candidates for six of the seven seats his party will fight in the state. Chirag will fight elections from Jamui while Ramchander has got the ticket for Samastipur.

Paswan has won from Hajipur a number of times but suffered a shock defeat in 2009 at the hands of former state chief minister Ram Sunder Das of JD(U).

Paswan's close aide Rama Kishor Singh, who has several criminal cases registered against him, will contest election from Vaishali. LJP also gave ticket to wife of Suraj Bhan Singh, who could not fight election due to his conviction in a criminal case. Beena Devi has been fielded from Munger.

Satyanand Sharma will contest from Nalanda. Chirag said the party would soon declare the name of its candidate from Khagaria constituency.

Paswan had recently split with UPA, alleging mistreatment, and tied up with BJP. He had quit BJP-led NDA in 2002 over Gujarat riots and his party has argued that there is no ground to question Narendra Modi's role in the communal violence after the Gujarat CM was given a clean chit by a court.