Patna, April 23: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar's son Anshul Avijit was on Tuesday named the Congress candidate from Bihar's Patna Sahib seat. A communication to this effect was issued by AICC general secretary K C Venugopal. Named after the Sikh shrine situated at the place where Guru Gobind Singh was born, Patna Sahib has been a BJP bastion since the seat came into existence after the 2008 delimitation. Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Congress Releases List of Seven Candidates for Bihar and Punjab LS Polls, Fields Ajay Nishad From Muzaffarpur

The BJP candidate for the seat, where polling is scheduled in the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha polls on June 1, is former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who had defeated actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha in the last general elections. Sinha, who has since joined the Trinamool Congress and shifted base to Asansol in West Bengal, had contested as the Congress candidate, after having represented the seat twice as BJP MP. Mehboob Ali Kaiser Joins RJD: Khagaria MP, NDA’s Lone Muslim MP in Bihar, Joins Rashtriya Janata Dal Ahead of Lok Sabha Elections (Watch Video)

Avijit's mother, who recently expressed reluctance to fight Lok Sabha polls, and maternal grandfather Jagjivan Ram, a former Deputy Prime Minister, have represented Bihar's reserved Sasaram seat several times. Avijit, who will be making his electoral debut, has been a national spokesperson of the Congress for many years. The Congress has an alliance with the RJD and three Left parties in Bihar where it is contesting nine out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats.