PATNA: The Janata Dal (United), led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, announced its first list of 57 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections on Wednesday. The party has put forward candidates for five seats—Sonbarsa, Alauli, Ekma, Morwa, and Rajgir—that were reportedly sought by LJP (RV) President Chirag Paswan, who has been allocated 29 seats by the BJP for contesting.
This move by JD(U) indicates a deviation from the seat-sharing arrangements of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The LJP (R) was assigned 29 seats, which includes the five now contested by JD(U).
Among the 57 candidates for the initial phase of the elections, ten belong to Scheduled Castes and four are women. Notably, there are no Muslim candidates in this first slate. JD(U) has vacated its previous seat in Tarapur, which will now be contested by Deputy CM and BJP leader Samrat Chaudhary. In a recent by-election, Rajiv Kumar Singh of JD(U) won the Tarapur seat.
Additionally, JD(U) has decided to award the Parbatta seat to an ally. The seat was previously held by JD(U)’s Sanjeev Kumar, who recently defected to the RJD led by Lalu Prasad. The party has included at least six ministers in this first list, reinforcing its existing leadership.
Key figures among the candidates include Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, serving as the state’s water resources and parliamentary affairs minister, contesting from Sarairanjan in Samastipur, and Maheshwar Hazari, the I&PRD minister, standing from Kalyanpur. Other repeated candidates include rural development minister Shravan Kumar from Nalanda, Madan Sahni from Bahadurpur, Sunil Kumar from Bhore, and Ratnesh Sada from Sonbarsa. Overall, 18 incumbent MLAs have been granted tickets again.
Four sitting MLAs—Aman Bhushan Hazari (Kusheshwar Asthan), Ashok Kumar Choudhary (Sakra), Sudarshan Kumar (Barbigha), and Ashok Kumar (Warisnagar)—have been denied tickets for this election. Krishna Murari Sharan, known as Prem Mukhiya, has been given a ticket from the Hilsa seat, where he won by a slim margin of 12 votes in the previous election.
Additionally, JD(U) has selected three notable candidates: Anant Singh from Mokama, Dhumal Singh from Ekma, and Amarendra Pandey from Kuchaikot, as part of its first candidate list.
