Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, October 15
Former petroleum and oil secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey, who has been denied renomination from his traditional Bagaha constituency by the BJP on Thursday invoked teachings of Shivaji Maharaj and appealed to the voters of his area to join in his struggle against the injustice caused by BJP.
Pandey who is a retired IAS officer of 1972 batch had successfully contested the 2015 assembly elections as BJP candidate has been rejected by the election committee and in his place an OBC worker of the party, Ram Singh has been fielded. Pandey said he had 0been cheated and the people of his constituency betrayed by some influential BJP leaders of Bihar.
Pandey, a former IAS officer of Nagaland cadre who had worked as interlocutor between the union government and the banned terrorist organisations of Nagaland, said, “Injustice has been done to me,to the people of Bagaha.” There had been a conspiracy against him by some businessmen and contractors whose interests were affected adversely in the last five years. He had disallowed middlemen in the development projects and liquidated their involvement in the delivery system to the tribals.
Pandey appealed to the electorate to reject the middlemen and power brokers and elect the leader who fought for them. He reminded the voters of Shivaji Maharaj teachings and said his success depended upon the common man “Let us fight together”, he said.
Pandey also quoted some lines from a popular poem of Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Raar Nahi Thanunga, Haar Nahi manunga, Geet Naya Gaunga) and declared with the support of the people he would set a new trend in politics of Chamaparan. Bagaha is a district bordering Nepal in Champaran and till the 90s it was notorious for presence of dreaded dacoits.
Pandey listed the achievements in the last five years in development of infrastructure facilities in the constituency.
When asked if he would contest the elections as an independent against the official BJP nominee, Pandey said: “It is for the people to decide,but I will definitely contest.I can not leave my voters in the lurch.”
R S Pandey is the second top civil servant in Bihar who has been denied nomination by NDA in the assembly elections. Last week, Gupteshwar Pandey, who had quit IPS, six months before his scheduled retirement to contest the assembly elections was disappointed when JDU denied him ticket. His name was not included in the list of star campaigners of the party, though he had claimed he was invited by the people of at least 26 places to campaign.
