JDU breaks seat agreement, announces candidates for seats demanded by Chirag; 57 candidates including ministers

NEW DELHI: The Janata Dal (United) has released the first list of 57 candidates for the Bihar assembly elections. The list, which includes Ananth Kumar and five state ministers, also includes seats that Chirag Paswan's Lok Jan Shakti party had demanded. The JDU move has broken the NDA seat agreement.

JDU has announced candidates for the seats of Morwa, Sonbarsa, Rajgir, Gaighat and Matihani, which were demanded by Chirag Paswan in the NDA seat talks. This has debunked the news that it was agreed to give these seats to Chirag. In 2020, RJD won in Morwa and Gaighat and JDU in Rajgir and Sonbarsa. Rajkumar Singh, who won in Matihani under the Lok Janshakti Party label, later switched to JDU.

RJD won Morwa and Gaighat, while JD(U) won Rajgir and Sonbarsa in 2020. Rajkumar Singh, who won in Matihani under the Lok Janshakti Party ticket, later switched to JDU.

Shravan Kumar (Nalanda), Vijay Kumar Choudhary (Sarairanjan), Maheshwar Hazari (Kalyanpur), Madan Sahni (Bahadurpur), Ratnesh Sadha (Sonbarsa) are the ministers who have made it to the first list. The first list includes prominent figures like Ratnesh Sadha (Sonbarsa), Vidyasagar Nishad (Morwa), Dhumal Singh (Ekma), and Kaushal Kishore (Rajgir).

Meanwhile, Chirag Paswan's LJP, which has been allotted 29 seats in the final seat-sharing distribution within the NDA, has released the first list of 14 candidates.

BJP completes candidate list

The BJP has completed its candidate announcement by releasing two more lists. The party first announced the second list for 12 constituencies and the third list of 18 candidates late at night. 71 candidates were initially announced. JDU and BJP in the NDA are expected to contest 101 seats each.

The second list includes famous singer Maithili Thakur (Alinagar), who joined the party recently and former IPS officer Anand Mishra (Buxar). Prominent figures like Chhoti Kumari (Chhapra), Birendra Kumar (Rosera), and Mahesh Paswan (Agion) have also been included. The BJP had earlier announced the first list of 71 people.