The Congress party has become the most “sough-after” for the muscle-flexing, influential and ticket hopefuls with the next general elections barely few weeks away. While former MP Lovely Anand, wife of tainted politician Anand Mohan, has already joined the party, many more such faces look headed for the party to secure their chances of LS tickets.

The general masses were amused when Lovely, wife of Anand Mohan who is serving life term in jail in the murder of IAS officer G Krishnaiah, accepted the membership of the Congress in the presence of top party leaders on Friday. Lovely had come into limelight when she won the by-polls to Vaishali LS seat defeating the mighty Janata Dal candidate Kishori Sinha, wife of former Bihar chief minister Satyendra Narayan Sinha, in 1993. She had achieved the “impossible” while Lalu Prasad who then headed the united Janata Dal was in power in the state.

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On Friday, Lovely marched to the Congress office in convoy of cars and was inducted into the party by party’s Bihar’s in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil. The Congress leaders said the party would get strengthened with Lovely’s entry. Reports said Lovely wants to contest Sheohar LS and this is the reason why she has joined the Congress.

She is not alone. Another muscle-flexing leader Anant Singh who has over a dozen criminal cases pending with various police stations in the state too looks headed for the Congress. The story came when Singh who earlier was with Nitish Kumar’s JD-U told the media that his ticket has “almost been cleared” by the Congress for the Munger LS seat. Interestingly, Singh has already launched campaigning in his constituency although the seat-sharing issue is yet to be settled among the Grand Alliance partners.

The RJD has already made clear that “bad elements” like Anant Singh are not welcome in the Grand Alliance. “There is no place for bad elements like Anant Singh in the Grand Alliance. His ideology doesn’t match with that of the Grand Alliance,” was how RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had said last month when his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav had welcomed Singh into the opposition alliance after the latter heaped praises on RJD chief Prasad.

Yet another muscle-man Pappu Yadav who now represents the Madhepura LS seat is also more than eager to tie-up with the Congress after failing to get place in the NDA. Yadav who won the last LS polls on RJD ticket fell out with the party leadership after he claimed to be the “real heir” of party chief Prasad. The overall situation turned so serious that he was ultimately thrown out from the RJD.

Last week, he unsuccessfully tried to meet the RJD president who is serving prison term in Ranchi jail but his request for meeting was rejected, media reports have said.