Patna, Nov 5 (IANS) Congress candidate in the Aurangabad Sadar Assembly constituency, Anand Shankar, suffered a major setback after former RJD district president and ex-MLA Suresh Mehta resigned from all posts in the RJD and joined the BJP.

Mehta’s switch is seen as a development that may impact a sizeable vote segment in the constituency and could trouble the Grand Alliance candidate.

Addressing a press conference, Mehta said he was repeatedly ignored and humiliated within the party.

He said that despite years of loyalty, he did not receive respect from the RJD leadership.

Mehta said that his mentor, Shakuni Chaudhary and senior NDA leaders continued to persuade him to join their side.

He claimed that when he was the RJD district president, the Grand Alliance won all six Assembly seats in Aurangabad district, and now he would work with full strength to ensure the victory of BJP candidate Vikram Narayan in Aurangabad Sadar.

Meanwhile, the Grand Alliance has also managed to engineer a counter-move.

Sitting BJP MLA from Bhagalpur’s Pirpainti Assembly seat, Lalan Paswan, joined the RJD in Patna in the presence of Tejashwi Yadav and Rabri Devi, after being denied a ticket by the BJP.

The RJD handed him party membership and the symbolic gamcha of the party.

RJD spokesperson Ejaz Ahmed said Paswan’s entry would strengthen the party’s movement for social justice.

Tejashwi Yadav alleged that the BJP only uses Dalits politically but does not stand with them on issues of rights and representation.

Paswan, who created a controversy in 2020 after alleging that Lalu Prasad Yadav had telephoned him from jail, resigned from the BJP on October 16, stating that the party had no space left for outspoken Dalit leadership.

In Pirpainti, the RJD has fielded Ramvilas Paswan against the BJP’s Murari Paswan, while Ghanshyam Das (Jan Suraj Party), Sunil Kumar Chaudhary (BSP) and Pritam Kumar (AAP) are also in the contest.

Voting in Pirpainti will take place on November 11 in the second phase.

–IANS

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