Bihar polls: RJD women’s wing chief to contest as independent against party candidate in Parihar

RJD women’s wing state president Ritu Jaiswal on Sunday (October 19) announced that she would contest from Parihar assembly seat in Bihar as an independent candidate to protest the party giving a ticket to its detractor.

In a Facebook post, she expressed anguish that the seat had gone to the “daughter-in-law of Ram Chandra Purve”, a former RJD state president, whose “betrayal” she blamed, for her defeat from the seat in 2020, by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.

“I will file my nomination paper tomorrow as an independent candidate. The party has indicated that it is ready to accommodate me in another constituency. But that would be an agreement against my conscience,” said the 48-year-old, who had started as a Panchayat Mukhiya educated.
Married to former civil servant Arun Kumar, who gave up a lucrative career to get elected Mukhiya of the same Singjvahini Panchayat of Sitamarhi that was earlier headed by his wife, Jaiswal had also contested the Lok Sabha polls last year from Sheohar constituency, where she lost by a margin of less than 30,000 votes to JD’s Lovely Anand (U).

Although the RJD is yet to officially announce the names of any of its candidates, photos of Purve’s daughter-in-law Smita receiving the party symbol from Tejashwi Yadav, son and heir apparent of national president Lalu Prasad, have gone viral on social media.