Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has released its list of candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, in which 143 candidates are in the fray from across the state. The official list was released on the last day of nomination for the second phase. Among the 143 candidates, 24 women candidates are also included.
With this announcement, the nature of the Grand Alliance has also become clear, in which RJD 143, Congress 61, CPI(ML) 20 and the remaining seats are likely to go to the account of Mukesh Sahni’s VIP. Since the alliance has not been formally announced yet, some people may withdraw at the last moment.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will contest from Raghopur constituency, Lalit Yadav from Darbhanga Rural and Dilip Singh from Barauli, Ram Vilas Paswan from Peerpainti (SC) and Savitri Devi Chakai.
Other candidates include Renu Kushwaha in Bihariganj constituency, Anita Devi Mahato in Warsaliganj, Mala Pushpam in Hasanpur, Sandhya Rani Kushwaha in Madhuban, Ritu Priya Choudhary in Imamganj (SC), Tanushree Manjhi in Barachatti (SC), Chandni Devi Singh in Baniyapur constituency, Arvind Sahni in Sarayaranjan, Prema Choudhary in Patepur (SC), Brahmapur Shambhu Nath and Bajpatti include Mukesh Yadav.
Meanwhile, a comparison of the candidate lists of RJD and Indian National Congress (Congress) for the Bihar Assembly elections revealed that there are some seats where both the parties have fielded candidates despite being in the grand alliance.
In Narkatiaganj, Deepak Yadav (RJD) will face Shashwat Kedar Pandey (Congress); Rajneesh Bharti (RJD) will face Praveen Singh Kushwaha (Congress) in Kahalgaon; In Sikandra (SU), Uday Narayan Choudhary (RJD) will face Vinod Choudhary (Congress), while in Lalganj (Vaishali), Shivani Shukla of RJD may face Aditya Kumar Raja of Congress.
However, there is a possibility of compromise between the allies, as one party may withdraw in favor of the other.
Earlier on Saturday, Congress released its second list for Bihar Assembly elections, in which candidates were announced for Narkatiaganj, Kishanganj, Kasba, Purnia and Gaya Town assembly seats.
The party has fielded Shaswat Kedar Pandey from Narkatiaganj and Qamarul Hoda from Kishanganj. Irfan Alam, Jitendra Yadav and Mohan Srivasta will contest from Kasba, Purnia and Gaya Town constituencies respectively. The party has also made Minnat Rahmani its candidate from Supaul.
Earlier, on October 17, the Congress party had released its first list of 48 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. Voting for Bihar elections 2025 will take place on November 6 and 11. The results will be declared on 14 November.
