Patna: Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti on Thursday filed their nominations for the Pataliputra Lok Sabha seat.
A former confidant of Prasad, Yadav had quit the RJD and joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in which he defeated Bharti by a margin of less than 40,000 votes.
Yadav was accompanied by a number of senior BJP leaders, including Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is the party candidate in the adjoining Patna Sahib constituency.
Bharti, who is a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha, was accompanied by her mother Rabri Devi who carried a photograph of her husband, who is serving sentences in fodder scam cases - and brother Tej Pratap Yadav.
RJD heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, the younger of Prasad's two sons, was conspicuous by his absence, though party sources claimed he was busy in the election campaign.
There had been speculations that Yadav wanted MLA Bhai Virendra to contest from the Pataliputra seat.
The Lok Sabha constituency goes to polls in the seventh and final phase of general elections on May 19.
Altogether 49 candidates filed their nominations for the eight Lok Sabha seats that go to polls in the seventh phase, according to the Election Commission.
Prominent among them were former Union minister and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha (Karakat), sitting BJP MP Chhedi Paswan (Sasaram) and CPI(ML) candidate Raju Yadav (Ara). Other seats that go to polls in the final phase are Buxar, Nalanda and Jehanabad.
Notably, the RJD and the CPI(ML) are supporting each other's candidates in Pataliputra and Ara, respectively. This has bolstered the prospects of Misa Bharti while bringing debutant Raju Yadav in a straight contest with sitting MP and Union minister Raj Kumar Singh.
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