NEW DELHI: According to party insiders, the name of Akash Prasad Singh was recommended by the six district presidents of Paschimi Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Arwal, Jahanabad, Nawada and Maharajganj.
The Congress party leaders are displeased over the recent ticket distribution where the son (Akash Prasad Singh) of Bihar state Congress president, Akhilesh Prasad Singh got ticket from Maharajganj. Sources suggest that he got ticket because of undue influence practiced by his father, who holds a powerful position in the state.
According to party insiders, his name was recommended by the six district presidents.
Paschimi Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Arwal (where from Akash’s uncle is the district president), Jahanabad, Nawada and Maharajganj. And eventually he got the ticket from Maharajganj. A senior leader questioned, “How can a leader like Akash be recommended from six districts? Is he such a big leader that he can contest from any of these regions?”
However, Akash Prasad Singh told The Sunday Guardian that the seat was given to Congress. Further he added, “I believe people were fed up with the current Member Parliament and they came to Congress office in droves and it is on their request I got the ticket.”
BJP’s Janardan Singh Sigriwal is the sitting MP from Maharajganj.
The party insiders say that since Akash was not a substantial player in the constituency, the decision to name him as the Congress candidate took a lot of convincing (from RJD and interested leaders) and only then the grand old party’s leadership agreed to his candidature. Word is, keeping in consideration the proximity between Lalu and Akhilesh Prasad, Lalu is said to have intervened and suggested that his party (RJD) would help Congress win the seat and therefore they should have no doubt on the winnability of the candidate. Such a deal, according to a person privy to the developments, had finalised the candidature of Akash.
Subsequently, according to sources, the Congress party has stifled its own political power and indirectly given the chains of its leadership to Lalu. A source said, “There is a Lalu compromise situation with Congress in Bihar. Congress has given up its own mind, its own leaders. The leadership is covertly following Lalu.”
Interestingly, Akash Prasad Singh had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election unsuccessfully from the East Champaran seat from the now defunct Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. Now, he is fighting for Congress. According to senior leaders, his paternal home is in Arwal, which is around 300 kilometres away from where he is contesting now (Maharajganj). He is not the native of that constituency. A Congress leader added, “That is the reason why the congress cadre at the local level is not flourishing. All the time they expect their own leader to be selected for tickets but someone from outside is being imposed on them. That is also the reason why Congress workers do not get mobilised.”
Congress leaders, on such dubious activities, question the authenticity of other surveys and reports as they claim that there would be many other seats where the surveys would have been forged and where the interest of top leaders would have prevailed. No matter how much dedicated the other deserving leaders are?