Patna: As Congress on Monday April 22 announced the names of its candidates for five seats in Bihar, the son and daughter of two sitting ministers in the Nitish Kumar cabinet find themselves pitted against each other.
In the Congress' latest list of candidates, rebel Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ajay Nishad has been fielded from Muzaffarpur whereas Sunny Hazari has been fielded from Samastipur reserved seat. Congress has named Madan Mohan Tiwari from Paschim Champaran, Akash Prasad Singh from Maharajganj and Manoj Kumar from Sasaram.
Sunny is the son of Bihar minister Maheshwar Hazari and will take on NDA candidate Shambhavi Choudhary, daughter of CM Nitish Kumar's favorite minister Ashok Choudhary on the Samastipur reserved seat. With the son and daughter of two ministers fielded against each other in Samastipur, the seat has become one of the hottest seats to look out for in the Lok Sabha election 2024.
Who is Sunny Hazari?: Congress candidate from Samastipur Sunny Hazari is the son of Maheshwar Hazari, a prominent Dalit leader of Samastipur. Maheshwar Hazari has also been an MP from this seat. He has been the Deputy Speaker of Bihar Assembly and is currently a minister in Nitish Kumar cabinet. Sunny himself is continuously active in local politics. Just a few days ago he took membership of Congress. Although he first tried to get a ticket from Chirag Paswan's party LJPR but to no avail. Sunny and his father have family relations with Ram Vilas Paswan.
Who is Shambhavi Chaudhary?: Shambhavi Chaudhary, who is contesting elections from NDA on the Samastipur seat, is the daughter of Bihar government minister Ashok Chaudhary. His grandfather Mahavir Chaudhary was a powerful leader of the state. Shambhavi is married to Sayan Kunal, son of former IPS and Mahavir Mandir Trust secretary Kishore Kunal. Coming from Dalit community, Shambhavi's husband comes from Bhumihar community.
Due to the fight between the children of two cabinet ministers, everyone's eyes are on the stand of CM Nitish Kumar, because both the ministers are very much part of the cabinet. Ashok Chaudhary is openly campaigning for his daughter but Maheshwar Hazari has not come forward openly for his son yet. Being in the alliance, it is believed that the CM will ultimately support Ashok Chaudhary's daughter Shambhavi Chaudhary.
For the last few days, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been continuously attacking RJD President Lalu Yadav on the issue of familyism. While addressing the election rally in Katihar, he had taunted about his having more children and said, “why should anyone have so many children, but he (Lalu) did”. Now when the son and daughter of two of his ministers are facing each other, it has to be seen what stand the CM takes.
