BJP announces candidates for Godda, Panki assembly bypolls

Ranchi: The BJP party announced its candidates for the Godda and Panki bypolls scheduled for May 16 on Tuesday night. The party has decided to field JMM turncoat Lal Suraj as its candidate from Panki, who had finished fourth in the 2014 assembly election by securing over 14% of the total vote.
For the Godda seat, the BJP has decided to field the son of late BJP MLA Raghunandan Mandal, Amit Mandal.Amit is an MBA graduate from Branford University, London and comes with a strong political lineage. His grandfather, Sumrit Mandal, represented the seat in Bihar assembly on a JMM ticket twice.
Lal Suraj, though not a known name in political circles, contested the 2014 general assembly election on a JMM ticket but came in fourth to BJP's Amit Kumar Tiwary, who finished third. Though state BJP leaders were reposing faith in Tiwary's candidature, a faction wanted to field Lal Suraj after he was rejected by the JMM, which in turn announced to give ticket to the second place holder Kushwaha Shashi Bhushan Mehta.
Most BJP leaders admit that they do not know much about the candidate (Suraj). A few BJP members were even disappointed with the party's decision to ignore dedicated party workers and instead opt for a "newcomer". "Our candidate Amit Kumar Tiway did better in the previous election," said a senior party functionary preferring anonymity.