MLA to face husband’s murder accused in polls
DANAPUR: For the second time in a decade, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Asha Sinha is set to take on a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate who is accused of killing her husband, Satyanarain Sinha, 17 years ago.
Ritlal Yadav, who faces 33 criminal cases including murder and extortion, filed his nomination papers as the RJD candidate on Tuesday for the Danapur assembly seat, which Sinha holds. The election will take place on November 3, the second stage of the three-phase assembly elections in Bihar.
Yadav also contested the seat against the BJP MLA in 2010 as an independent. At that time, he was in jail. After Satyanarain Sinha’s murder in 2003, he was absconding and surrendered to the police so that he could fight the 2010 election. The murder trial is still pending. Asha Sinha, 55, said the RJD distributes election tickets to gangsters in secrecy and appeared to be unfazed by the prospect of facing her husband’s alleged killer in the election.
“They ensure that pictures of such candidates are not seen in media. I am unfazed by his candidature. People should ask him how did he lose his three fingers,” she said. Sinha has won election thrice to the Bihar assembly from Danapur — in 2005, 2010, 2015.
Satyanarain Sinha, a BJP politician, was allegedly gunned down by Ritlal Yadav and his associates at Khagaul on the outskirts of the state capital on April 30, 2003, the day RJD chief Lalu Prasad organised a “lathi rally” .