The Janata Dal (United), led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Wednesday released its first list of 57 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. This comes a day after BJP, their alliance partner, released their first list of 71 candidates.
Several ministers from the current Bihar government have been given tickets again, including Shravan Kumar, who will contest from Nalanda. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, currently serving as the Water Resources Minister, has been nominated from Sarairanjan. Maheshwar Hazari, the Information and Public Relations Minister, will contest from Kalyanpur, while Social Welfare Minister Madan Sahni will represent Bahadurpur. Ratnesh Sada, the Prohibition Minister, has been named for the Sonbarsa seat. JD(U) state president Umesh Kushwaha has been nominated from Mahanar, while Sunil Kumar will contest from Bhore, a reserved constituency.
Interestingly, the JD(U)’s first list includes candidates for five constituencies, Morwa, Sonbarsa, Rajgir, Gaighat and Matihani, that were reportedly being considered for allocation to Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
The NDA finalised its seat-sharing arrangement earlier this week. As per the agreement, both JD(U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest 101 seats each. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has been given 29 seats, while the Rashtriya Lok Morcha and Hindustani Awam Morcha will contest six seats each.
The BJP released its own list of 71 candidates for the elections. Among the prominent names are Mangal Pandey from Siwan, Tarkishore Prasad from Katihar, Ramkripal Yadav from Danapur, Nitin Nabin from Bankipur and Renu Devi from Bettiah. Other senior leaders fielded include Prem Kumar from Gaya Town, Shreyasi Singh from Jamui, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha from Lakhisarai, and Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary from Tarapur.
JD(U) leader and Member of Parliament Sanjay Kumar Jha confirmed that the party would be releasing a second list of candidates soon. He also commented on the state of the opposition Mahagathbandhan, saying, “The Mahagathbandhan is struggling to finalise seat-sharing. In contrast, JD(U) and NDA have moved ahead with clarity. Our leader, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is set to begin the election campaign from Thursday.”
Meanwhile, the Jan Suraaj Party, led by political strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, has maintained its momentum in candidate selection. The party released a second list of 65 candidates on Monday, taking its total number of declared candidates to 116.
The Election Commission has officially notified the second phase of the Bihar assembly elections. Voting will take place in two phases, on 6 November and 11 November. The counting of votes is scheduled for 14 November. As per the final electoral roll, the total number of registered voters stands at 7.42 crore.
