Patna: RLM state president Alok Kumar Singh and two other party MLAs on Friday said independent candidate Ram Pukar Sinha will not contest the Oct 23 legislative council election and support JD(U) candidate Anand Pushkar in Saran Teachers’ constituency. This leaves a contest between Pushkar and Jan Suraaj candidate Afaq Ahmed.“Since the last date for withdrawing nomination papers was Oct 9, Sinha cannot formally withdraw but will not contest the election,” Alok said at a news conference attended by Sinha and MLAs Madhav Anand and Rameshwar Mahto.Dinara MLA Alok, who had attended Sinha’s nomination filing on Oct 5 with the two MLAs, said the decision was taken on the orders of NDA leaders, including BJP national president Nitin Nabin, JD(U) working national president Sanjay Kumar Jha and LJP(RV) chief Chirag Paswan. He did not mention RLM national president Upendra Kushwaha.The RLM MLAs said Sinha would get respect in the party and they were committed to strengthening the NDA. Sinha was suspended for six years for contesting against the official NDA candidate. However, three of the four MLAs supported him, saying it was the party line as the decision had been taken by a majority of RLM MLAs.
