Patna: CM Samrat Choudhary held a meeting with state NDA functionaries at his official residence Wednesday evening and discussed the strategy for the Oct 23 legislative council elections for eight graduates’ and teachers’ seats. BJP and JD(U) are contesting four seats each.BJP state president Sanjay Saraogi said it was decided to hold the NDA legislature party meeting at 4 pm on Oct 9 to further discuss the strategy for the council elections. “NDA is contesting the elections unitedly,” he said.LJP(RV) functionary and minister Sanjay Kumar Paswan said all state presidents of the parties were called to discuss the upcoming elections and the Oct 9 meeting.On the JD(U) MLA Anant Singh versus MLC Neeraj Kumar controversy, Sanjay said it’s their internal matter and they will resolve it. “But NDA is united. We are going to win all the seats. The respective party functionaries have been authorised to resolve the issue of rebel candidates through talks,” he said.Others who attended the meeting included JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha; state president Umesh Kushwaha and deputy CMs Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav; minister Deepak Prakash from RLM; HAM(S) national president and minister Santosh Kumar Suman among other ministers, MLAs and MLCs.The meeting assumed significance in view of the open support by some of the ruling NDA alliance MLAs to rebels as well as the opposition candidates, particularly in Patna graduates’ and Saran teachers’ constituencies. After Samrat became the CM, BJP lost its first by-election held in its stronghold Bankipur assembly constituency to Prashant Kishor, who has fielded his Jan Suraaj candidates in the council elections.JD(U) MLA Anant Singh is strongly campaigning for Jan Suraaj’s Anuj Singh against his own party candidate and sitting MLC Neeraj Kumar in Patna graduates’ constituency. Three of the four RLM MLAs, including the party’s state president Alok Kumar Singh, have supported independent candidate Ram Pukar Sinha against JD(U) nominee Anand Pushkar for the Saran teachers’ seat.Though the opposition is a divided house and Congress is contesting against RJD in five seats, the results of the coming legislative council elections are considered crucial for the CM amid Prashant Kishor questioning his leadership and the opposition’s war against the chief election commissioner over the SIR issue.
