Bihar Assembly polls 2015: BJP announces first list of candidates with 43 names

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released its first list of candidates for the high-voltage Bihar Assembly Elections with 43 names.

The list, announced after a meeting of party's Central Election Committee (CEC) which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has 19 candidates for the first phase, 15 candidates for the second phase and nine candidates for other phases.

“Had discussions regarding candidature in the CEC meeting. List of 43 candidates have been finalised," said senior BJP leader and Union Minister JP Nadda while releasing the list.

"Over 50 percent of candidates are youth and women, 60 percent of them are from SC, ST and backward castes," he added.

The list carries the names of 26 sitting party MLAs while three sitting legislators have been denied party ticket.

"We have tried to give representation to all communities," Nadda told while addressing a press conference here.

Five of them are Yadavs, the most numerous OBC group which has traditionally backed RJD's Lalu Prasad but is being vigorously wooed by the BJP.

The CEC meeting at the Bharatiya Janata Party's central office was also attended by party president Amit Shah, union ministers Rajnath Singh, Ananth Kumar, JP Nadda and Dharamendra Pradhan, party's state affairs in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, former union minister Shahnawaz Hussain and former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

The BJP has decided to contest 160 seats in 243-member Bihar assembly, leaving the remaining to its allies - Lok Janshakti Party, Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party.

Elections for the 243-member Bihar Assembly will take place between October 12 to November 5. 

Following is the list of candidates announced by the BJP:

Phase 1 candidates:  
Saray Ranjan: Ranjit Nirguni
Rosera: Manju Hazari
Teghra: Ramlakhan Singh
Matihani: Sarvesh Kumar Singh
Begu Saray: Surendra Mehta
Bakhri: Ramanand Ram
Parbata: Ramanuj Chaudhary
Dihpur: Engineer Kumar Shailendra
Gopalpur: Anil Yadav
Tirpaiti: Lalan Paswan
Banka: Ram Narayan Mandal
Katoria: Niki Hembram
Dilhar: Manoj Yadav
Munger: Pranab Kumar Yadav
Suragadha: Prem Ranjan Patel
Lakhisarai: Vijay Kumar Sinha
Rajouli: Arjun Ram
Hiswa: Anil Singh
Jhajha: Dr Ravindra Yadav

Phase 2 candidates:
Ramgarh: Ashok Singh
Muhaniya: Niranjan Ram
Chainpur: Brij Kulshore Bind
Sasaram: Jawahar Prasad
Dinara: Rajendra Singh
Nokha: Ram Kishore Prasad Chaurasia
Karakat: Rajeshwar Raj
Arwal: Chitranjan Kumar
Goh: Manoj Sharma
Navin Nagar: Gopal Narayan Singh
Aurangabad: Ramadhar Singh
Gurwa: Rajiv Nandan Dangi
Bodhgaya: Shyam Dev Paswan
Gaya: Prem Kumar
Wazirgunj: Virendra Singh

Candidates for other phases

Patnasahib: Nandkishore Yadav
Kumrar seat: Arun Kumar
Betiya: Renu Devi
Motihari: Pramod Kumar
Sitamari: Sunil Kumar
Bennipatti: Vinod Narayan Jha
Rajgir: Satyadev Narayan Arya
Bankipur: Nitin Navin
Arrah: Amrinder Pratap Singh

BJP announces first list of candidates for #BiharPolls with 43 names pic.twitter.com/pU0QPDQHXU — ANI (@ANI_news) September 15, 2015