New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS): Congress workers staged protests outside AICC headquarters here on Wednesday, alleging bias in ticket distribution and "selling" of tickets ahead of the Bihar Assembly election.
The Congress workers held placards that read "Ticket bechne wale dalalon se Bihar Congress ko mukt karo" (Free the Congress from clutches of middlemen who are selling tickets).
Many Muslim leaders are also upset with the ticket distribution alleging that Muslims have only got tickets from Seemanchal region of Bihar but old candidates have been repeated and outside Seemanchal no ticket has been given to minorities. In Mithilanchal region, the seats meant for minorities such as Harlakhi have been given to others and there is resentment, said a leader.
Shakiluzaman Ansari wrote on Facebook that secular parties should not think of Muslims as a vote bank. In the last election, the Congress contested on 41 seats and 10 seats were allocated to Muslims but in this election Congress is contesting on 70 seats and till now only 8 seats have been given to Muslims.
A leader gave the example of Jale where the ticket is pending while two candidates Hasnain Qaiser and Naushad are demanding tickets from the seat and in Badharia in Siwan which is also a minority seat, the grandson of former minister Zawwar Hussain is demanding a ticket from the seat.
The party workers alleged large scale nepotism in ticket distribution and that leaders are bagging tickets for their sons and daughters. CLP leader Sadanand Singh has managed a ticket for his son but he himself withdrew from the contest.
While Avdesh Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Singh, and Madan Mohan Jha are demanding tickets for their sons, Avdesh Singh got a ticket for himself but Akhilesh has been denied a ticket for his son.
Madan Mohan Jha is himself contesting for MLC and he is demanding a ticket for his son from Benipur which is pending. Congress leaders are also upset as seats of Ramdev Rai Bachwara and former leader of the party Vijay Shankar Pandey were given to CPI-ML