Shaswat Kedar, 36, has been fielded from Valmiki Nagar seat located in Pashchim Champaran district of Bihar.
Shashwat is the grandson of Kedar Pandey, Bihar’s chief minister in 1972-73 and who also became Minister of Railways in the Union Cabinet from 12 November 1980 to 14 January 1982.
Shashwat’s father, Manoj Pandey, was also elected as an MP from Bettiah.
An alumnus of the Mayo College, Ajmer, Shashwat graduated from Nagaland University and followed with an MBA from the MG Open University.
A Youth Congress worker, Sashwat – the only Brahmin candidate from the Opposition alliance camp, will be pitted against the Janata Dal (United) nominee Vaidyanath Prasad Mahato.
Congress had earlier considered the name of the sitting BJP MP Satish Chandra Dubey, who has rebelled against his party after not getting the ticket as the seat went to the JD(U) under the NDA’s seat sharing pact. Satish Chandra Dubey has hinted to contest the polls from the seat as an independent, if no party gives him the ticket.
MLA from Bettiah Madan Mohan Tiwari and former BJP MP Kirti Azad were also in the consideration for being fielded from Valmiki Nagar seat.
BJP’s Bagaha MLA and former Union petroleum secretary Raghaw Sharan Pandey had also lobbied with senior Congress leaders in Delhi to seek the ticket from Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha constituency. Bagaha assembly segment falls under the Valmikinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 40 parliamentary constituencies in Bihar. This constituency came into existence in 2008, following delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies based on the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission of India constituted in 2002.
Satish Chandra Pandey of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had defeated Purnmasi Ram of Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
There were 1,456,576 electorate in the Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha Constituency in 2014 elections, out of which 786,297 are male and the remaining 670,279 are female. Voter turnout in the 2014 Parliamentary election was 61.8%.
Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha Constituency will go to polls in the sixth phase on May 12.
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