RJD to contest 10 assembly seats

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has identified 10 assembly seats in Nagaland to contest the assembly election scheduled to be held on February 27, said party’s national general secretary Bhola Yadav, who along with state agriculture minister Kumar Sarvjeet returned on Friday after their two-day visit to assess the situation in the poll-bound state, a TOI report stated.
The number of seats to contest may increase as some former ministers and strong candidates were in touch with RJD, Yadav told TOI over the phone. He said the scene will become clear on January 31, the day filing of nomination papers begins.
“We have analysed 32 seats on which RJD can contest,” said Yadav, adding RJD national president Lalu Prasad was popular among the people there and several constituencies had natives of Bihar and Muslims would vote for them. He said, they had contested 25 seats in 2008 and secured 6.53% of the total votes cast.
“We lost six seats by less than 200 votes and four seats by less than 2000 votes. We got the status of national party then,” he said.
Yadav further said BJP and NDPP had planned to go solo, but formed alliance again. “Now, several former ministers and strong candidates are not getting BJP ticket and they are in our touch. We will increase the seats to contest as per the candidates,” he said.