On Wednesday, Nitish Kumar’s party Janata Dal-United (JD-U) released a list of 115 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly election. The list also featured the name of former minister in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet Manju Verma, who was one of the accused in Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case.
Despite the fact that she was jailed in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, she has been nominated by JD-U to contest election from Cheria-Barriyarpur Assembly constituency of Begusarai district. She had won election in this constituency, in 2010 and 2015.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was investigating the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, had discovered a huge amount of arms and ammunition during the raid that they had conducted at her residence. She, along with her husband Chandrashekhar Verma was booked under the Arms Act. She was also suspended from JD-U.
As per the new guidelines of Election Commission, the party will have to clarify the reasons behind nominating a candidate with a criminal background. The party will have to give the clarifications on its social media handles while mentioning to the Election Commission.