RJD Releases List Of 143 Candidates For Bihar Elections; 5 To Contest Against INDIA Bloc Nominees
The list was released just hours before the filing of nomination papers for the final phase was to be over. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will contest from the Raghopur assembly seat in Vaishali district.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday released its list of candidates for the Bihar Assembly Election 2025, fielding candidates in 143 seats. Notably, the candidates list includes five leaders who will be contesting against nominees of the other INDIA bloc constituents.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will contest from the Raghopur assembly seat in Vaishali district. Some other names including Chandra Shekhar from Madhepura, Veena Devi (Surabhan's wife) from Mokama, and Uday Narayan Chaudhary from Jhajha were also in the list.
The list was announced as rifts within the INDIA bloc surfaced in poll-bound Bihar on Sunday, with growing discontent among leaders of the RJD and Congress — the alliance’s two largest partners. Several disgruntled aspirants accused the leadership of selling tickets and ignoring grassroots workers.
Due to the ongoing disputes within the Mahgathbandhan, the RJD had not announced its candidates till now. However, the party had allocated symbols to all its candidates even before declaring the official list.
RJD media cell president Ritu Jaiswal, who was miffed over not getting a ticket, announced that she would be filing her nomination papers as an Independent from Parihar seat, against the official candidate Smita Purve.
In an emotional Facebook post, Jaiswal, who had contested from the same seat five years ago and was the RJD’s candidate from Sheohar in last year’s Lok Sabha polls, losing narrowly on both occasions, accused Ram Chandra Purve, former state party chief and father-in-law of candidate Purve, of engineering her defeat in the 2020 assembly elections.
Congress Releases List Of 6 Candidates
Meanwile, the Congress on Monday released another list of six candidates for the Bihar polls, taking the total number of candidates announced by the party to 60.
According to the list of six candidates, the Congress fielded Surendra Prasad Kushwaha from Valmiki Nagar, Abidur Rehman from Araria, Jalil Mastan from Amour, Tauquir Alam from Barari, Praveen Singh Kushwaha from Kahalgaon and Vinod Chaudhary from Sikandra (SC).
With less than 24 hours left for filing nominations for the second and final phase, the coalition remained indecisive on key issues, including the announcement of a chief ministerial candidate and a final seat-sharing arrangement among its six allies.
Bihar assembly elections are scheduled for November 6 and 11. The counting and declaration of results will be done on November 14.
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