BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sudarshan Bhagat, BJP's state president and MP Ravindra Rai, Ajsu party president Sudesh Mahto and his party leader and Jharkhand Water Resources minister Chandraprakash Choudhary were among several NDA leaders who addressed a meeting before filing of nomination papers of their candidate.
Ajsu decided to give the ticket to Bhagat's wife after the two got married on October 4, three days before Bhagat, who was on bail, surrendered to a court following his seven-year jail sentence in June by the local court in the 1993 case of attempt to murder.