BJP's Bihar Gambit: Singer Maithili Thakur Among 12 New Candidates Revealed

According to the list released by the party, folk singer Maithili Thakur will contest elections from the Alinagar constituency of Darbhanga, while former IPS officer Anand Mishra has been fielded from the Buxar constituency.

Mishra was earlier part of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj and had led the party's Youth Wing as president.

According to the list released, Ram Chandra Prasad has been fielded from Hayaghat, Ranjan Kumar from Muzaffarpur, Subhash Singh from Gopalganj, Kedar Nath Singh from Baniapur, Chhoti Kumari from Chapra, Vinay Kumar Singh from Sonepur, Birendra Kumar from Rosera, Siyaram Singh from Barh, Mahesh Paswan from Agiaon and Rakesh Ojha from Shahpur.

The party had already declared its candidate in the other 71 seats on Tuesday.

In the first list released on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Sinha have been fielded from Tarapur and Lakhisarai constituencies, respectively.

The party has also fielded former Deputy CMs Renu Devi and Tarkishore Prasad from Bettiah and Katihar seats, respectively.

The party has also fielded former Union Minister and BJP leader Ramkripal Yadav, once a close confidant of RJD supremo Lalu Yadav from the Danapur assembly seat.

However, Assembly Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav was unable to secure a ticket from Patna Sahib; instead, the party has fielded Ratnesh Kushwaha from the seat.

BJP has also cut the ticket of Arun Kumar Sinha, who has been MLA for 15 years from the Kumrahar assembly. Sanjay Gupta has been fielded as a candidate for the seat.

The 71-member long list also includes nine female candidates: Renu Devi from Bettaih, Gayatri Devi from Parihar, Devanti Yadav from Narpatganj, Sweety Singh from Kishanganj, Nisha Singh from Pranpur, Kavita Devi from Korha (SC), and Rama Nishad from Aurai.

The BJP Central Election Committee has also approved the names of Mangal Pandey for Siwan, Nitin Nabin for Bankipur, Prem Kumar for Gaya Town, Shreyasi Singh for Jamui, among others, for the Bihar Assembly elections.

Earlier today, NDA ally Janata Dal (United) also released its first list of 57 candidates.

According to the release, the list of candidates for Janata Dal (U) in the first phase of the Bihar Legislative Assembly Elections 2025 has been approved by the party's National President, Nitish Kumar.

While the NDA has decided on seat distribution among its constituents for the Bihar polls, the Mahagathbandhan is yet to do so. The Election Commission issued a notification on Monday for the second phase of the state's assembly polls.

The ruling NDA decided its ticket distribution on Sunday. The BJP and JD(U) will contest 101 seats each, while the Lok Janshakti Party (headed by Ram Vilas) will contest 29 seats. The Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) will contest six seats each.

The polling for the 243-seat Assembly is scheduled to be held on November 6 and November 11, with counting set for November 14.

- ANI