Lok Sabha Polls 2019: Congress suspends Shakeel Ahmad for contesting elections independently

Congress party on Sunday suspended its former MP Shakeel Ahmad with immediate effect for contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Bihar's Madhubani constituency.

Ahmad will contest the polls an independent candidate. (Image: PTI)

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Congress party on Sunday suspended its former MP Shakeel Ahmad with immediate effect for contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Bihar's Madhubani constituency. As per reports, Ahmad will contest the polls an independent candidate. "Along with this, Ms Bhavana Jha, MLA Benipatti, has also been suspended from the Congress Party for anti-party activities with regards to the ongoing General Elections," the Congress said in its official statement. Ahmad, who was a former Union minister who has represented Madhubani in the Lok Sabha, filed his nomination papers in two sets as a Congress candidate and as an Independent candidate. However, he withdrew the former after the party declined his request for allotting the party symbol. The Communist Party of India (CPI), on May 1, extended support to Ahmad which is touted to be a move to queer roads for the grand alliance which has been formed to unseat the NDA government at the Centre. State Council of CPI made the announcement in a release and said that it was committed to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies. Reportedly, Ahmad was not happy after his traditional seat of Madhubani went to ally Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) under a seat-sharing formula of the Grand Alliance in Bihar. The CPI's move could be seen as a snub to Lalu Prasad's RJD, the largest constituent of the Mahagathbandhan which had turned down an appeal by CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy to ask its candidate from Begusarai to "retire" from the contest in favour of its nominee Kanhaiya Kumar. Although the party's strength has diminished in the last couple of decades, Madhubani used to be a CPI stronghold in the 1960s and 1970s when Bhogendra Jha had represented the seat also known by the name Jaynagar for a while four times. Besides the CPI, Ahmed is likely to receive help from Mohd Ali Ashraf Fatmi a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) veteran who quit the party recently to protest the "rough and rude" manner in which he was suspended by Tejashwi Yadav. He also withdrew his nomination papers submitted as an Independent citing Ahmed's presence in the fray and stating that he did not wish to help the BJP by a split in votes. The seat is witnessing a contest between sitting BJP MP Ajay Nishad and Rajbhushan Chaudhary Nishad of the VIP floated six months ago by former Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni with a view to providing a political platform to the Mallah community.