BJP releases second list of 12 candidates; fields folk singer Maithili Thakur from Alinagar

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its second list of 12 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections in November on Wednesday. The list of 12 has two women candidates, including folk singer Maithili Thakur, who joined the party a day before. Thakur will contest from the Alinagar assembly seat in Darbhanga district. The list also includes the name of IPS officer Anand Mishra, who was earlier in the Jan Suraaj Party and switched to the BJP. He will contest from the Buxar assembly seat. With this, BJP has so far announced the names of 83 candidates out of 101 it has been allocated in NDA’s seat-sharing arrangement.

‘NDA will win two-thirds majority’: Bihar BJP chief

Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal said on Wednesday that the NDA will secure an absolute two-thirds majority in the two-phased Bihar assembly polls. He also took a dig at the Mahagathbandhan for not announcing their seat-sharing arrangement or candidates yet. “The Mahagathbandhan has neither provided the correct figures about their seat sharing nor announced their candidates... NDA will win with a two-thirds majority...,” he told reporters.

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“All parties have discussed seat sharing and constituencies. After these discussions, each party is now announcing its candidates... We were the first to share information about our seat-sharing arrangements. We have announced our initial list of candidates, with more to follow soon... There is no problem anywhere,” he said.

On Tuesday, BJP had released its first list of 71 candidates for Bihar Assembly elections, and fielded Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary from Tarapur, Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha from Lakhisarai, State Minister Nitin Nabin from Bankipur and Renu Devi from Bettiah.

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Chirag Paswan-led LJP(RV) releases first list of 14 candidates

Union Minister Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) also released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. The LJP has fielded Sunil Kumar from Paliganj in Patna, while Babulal Shaurya will contest from Parbatta. Other candidates include Rajiv Ranjan Singh from Dehri, Hulas Pandey from Brahmapur, Raju Tiwari from Govindganj, Prakash Chandra from Obra, and Sanjay Kumar Singh from Simri Bakhtiyarpur.

The list also includes Vishnu Dev Paswan (Darauli), Mithun Kumar (Nathnagar), Sangeeta Devi (Balrampur), Rani Kumari (Makhdumpur), and Sanjay Kumar (Bakhri), reflecting the party’s focused strategy across Bihar’s constituencies.

Cracks in Janata Dal (United)?

Two days after the ruling NDA declared its seat-sharing arrangement, cracks are appearing within the Janata Dal (United) party. On Tuesday, party MP Ajay Kumar Mandal offered to resign, alleging that party leadership is denying him access to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Even though the deadline for filing nominations for the first phase of elections is just three days away, the Mahagathbandhan is yet to declare seat-sharing among its allies. Each party is finalising its list of candidates, and intense negotiations are on between the allies to swap seats.

Meanwhile, former chief minister Lalu Yadav's son and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav filed his nomination to contest the upcoming assembly elections in Hajipur. He will contest polls from Raghopur.

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