lJP announces 12 candidates in first Bihar poll list

The lok Janshakti Party (lJP) of union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday released its first list with 12 candidates for the Bihar assembly polls.

"The lJP parliamentary board has finalised candidates for 29 seats but we are releasing the first list of 12 candidates on which we got clearance from all the allies in the National Democratic Alliance," lJP MP Chirag Paswan said at a press conference here.

lJP's Bihar unit chief and union minister Paswan's brother Pashupati Kumar Paras will fight from Alauli whereas Amar Singh Kushwaha will be the party's candidate from Nathnagar.

Another Paswan family member Prince Raj has been given the ticket from Kalyanpur assembly constituency. Raj is the son of lJP MP Ram Chander Paswan, a brother of the union minister.

The list included names of leaders like Ramesh Singh from Vibhutipur assembly segment, Anil Choudhary from Cheriya Bariarpur, Subhash Chandra Bose from Sikandara (SC), Engineer Himanshu Raj from Jamalpur, Satendra Singh from Fatuha, Raju Tiwari from Govindganj, Vijay Paswan from Triveniganj (SC), Sarita Paswan from Sonbarsha (SC) and Md. Yusuf Khan from Simri Bakhtiyarpur.

The BJP will contest 160 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, the lok Janshakti Party 40 seats, Hindustani Awam Morcha 20 seats and Rashtriya lok Samata Party 23 seats.

Bihar will witness five-phased elections between October 12 to November 5. Counting of votes will take place on November 8.

The notification for the first phase of polls was issued on Wednesday.