2 dy CMs in BJP's first list of 71 for Bihar polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released the first list of 71 candidates for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, naming two sitting deputy chief ministers, 10 fresh faces and two turncoats, and dropping the speaker and two incumbent lawmakers.

- Vijay Swaroop

The announcement came amid a churn in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which announced its seat-sharing arrangement over the weekend but has since been stuck in tense talks among allies driving hard bargains. There are three days to go for the nomination to close for the first phase, when 122 seats go to the polls on November 6. In the second phase, 121 seats will go to the polls on November 11, and the votes will be counted on November 14.

Later in the day, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) released a list of six candidates, repeating four of them and dropping one.

The BJP list included 35 people from general castes, six from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities, 11 from other backward classes and 19 from extremely backward classes. The list contained nine women including minister Renu Devi, Gayatri Devi, Devanti Yadav and Rama Nishad.

"Under the leadership of Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hon'ble chief minister Nitish Kumar, with the unity of our workers and the blessings of the people, development will triumph once again in Bihar. With your commitment, service, and dedication to the people, Bihar will once again move forward on the path of good governance, progress, and stability," state BJP chief Dilip Jaiswal posted on X.

The party denied tickets to three sitting MLAs, including assembly speaker and seventime MLA from Patna Sahib, Nand Kishore Yadav, and changed candidates on 19 seats.

Nearly 50 candidates were retained. The second list of 30 candidates will be released soon, party office bearers said.