News Brief
Jayant Sinha (Pradeep Gaur/Mint via Getty Images)
After the BJP did not field two-time MP from Hazaribagh, Jayant Sinha for the Lok Sabha elections, his son Aashir Sinha joined the Congress days before voting in the constituency on 20 May.
The joining happened on Monday (13 May). This comes after BJP fielded Sadar MLA Manish Jaiswal for the Hazaribagh Parliamentary Constituency.
Notably, this will be the first time since 1998 that any member of the former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha's family will not be contesting the Lok Sabha election in Hazaribagh.
The Congress now hopes that it will be able to pull the traditional vote bank of the Sinha family on its side after Aashir's joining.
Congress candidate, Jai Prakash Bhai Patel, is also an MLA. He represents Mandu, an Assembly segment in the Hazaribagh constituency.
Hazaribagh has been won by Aashir's grandfather Yashwant Sinha thrice (in 1998, 1999 and 2009) and then his father Jayant Sinha twice (in 2014 and 2019).
Notably, Yashwant Sinha lost to the Communist Party of India's (CPI) Bhubneshwar Prasad Mehta in 2004. This time also, the CPI has fielded its candidate making the contest tripolar.