Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) on Wednesday released its first list of 57 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 amid a tussle within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The party has fielded candidates on five seats, which were claimed by Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). Among the key candidates announced for the upcoming elections are Anant Kumar Singh from Mokama, Shyam Rajak from Phulwari, Kaushal Kishore from Rajgir, Dhumal Singh from Ekma and Ratnesh Sada from Sonbarsa.
The list also includes several senior leaders and sitting MLAs, including Vijay Kumar Choudhary, a minister in the state government, who will contest from Sarairanjan, Shrawan Kumar from Nalanda, Madan Sahni from Bahadurpur, Maheshwar Hazari from Kalyanpur, Narendra Narayan Yadav from Alamnagar and Niranjan Kumar Mehta from Bihariganj.
Other prominent candidates include Santosh Kumar Nirala (Rajpur), Binay Kumar Choudhary (Benipur), Umesh Singh Kushwaha (Mahnar), Shri Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha (Jagdishpur), Komal Singh (Gaighat) and Vidya Sagar Singh Nishad (Morwa).
Apart from Komal Singh, the JDU declared three other women candidates in the first list, including Kavita Sah from Madhepura, Ashwamedh Devi from Samastipur and Raveena Kushwaha from Bibhutipur.
NDA's seat-sharing tussle
The NDA is facing a lot of seat-sharing troubles, as the Janata Dal United (JDU), Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) are at loggerheads over the distribution of seats among the partners.
The JDU announced candidates for five seats, including Sonbarsa, Gaighat, Morwa, Rajgir and Ekma, which Chirag Paswan's party was seeking. Earlier, Manjhi's HAM announced six candidates which were allotted to them under the seat-sharing agreement but threatened to declare candidates against LJP-RV in Bodh Gaya and Makhdumpur.
Upendra Kushwaha stated that all is not well in the NDA and reached Delhi to meet Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday.
The BJP on Tuesday (October 14) announced its first list of 71 candidates, including Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. According to the seat-sharing deal, the BJP and the JDU will contest 101 seats each, while the LJP-RV will fight 29 seats. The HAM and the RLM were allotted six seats each.
