Patna: The BJP on Sunday issued a list of 46 candidates for the second phase of the Bihar Assembly polls slated for November 3, including Nand Kishore Yadav from the prestigious Patna Sahib constituency. The saffron party has given tickets to just two female candidates from Bettiah and Danapur.
The list was issued by BJP national President JP Nadda who was in Patna and paid tribute to Jay Prakash Narayan at his house in Kadam Kuan before announcing the list.
Four-time MLA Renu Devi got the ticket from Bettiah in north Bihar. She is also a Cabinet minister in Nitish Kumar government. Asha Sinha bagged the ticket from Danapur constituency in Patna district.
Besides, son of former Chief Minister Jaggannath Mishra managed to bag a ticket from Jhanjharpur constituency in Madhubani district. He has been elected from this seat three times.
Siwan seat will see BJP's Om Prakash Yadav in the fray and Avdesh Singh in Hajipur. Kundan Singh has been fielded from Begusarai, Rohit Pande from Bhagalpur, and Subhash Singh from Gopalganj.Nikhil Anand, the chief spokesperson of BJP Bihar unit was also given a ticket from Maner constituency. Maner is his hometown located next to Danapur in Patna district. Anand had a long career in journalism before he joined the saffron party.
Rohit Mishra, the district president of Bhagalpur has also bagged the ticket to contest the election.
Besides list of candidates, BJP has also issued the list of 30 star campaigners including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nadda, Manoj Tiwari, Yogi Adityanath and others.
The name of Gorakhpur MP and actor Ravi Kishan was missing in the list. He is one of the most successful Bhojpuri actors and is popular in Bihar.
The 46 candidates were given the nod in BJP's Central Election Committee meeting on Saturday night, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and others.
The two BJP lists released earlier had the names of 27 and two candidates.
The BJP got 121 of the total 243 seats in Bihar and ally Janata Dal-United 122 seats. The JD-U was expected to accommodate Hindustani Awam Morcha in its quota of seats and the BJP,Vikassheel Insaan Party
On October 7, the BJP had allocated 11 seats to the Vikassheel Insaan Party from its own quota, thus choosing to contest 110 seats in all.
The Bihar election is to be held in three phases, starting from October 28. The results will be announced on November 10.
(With inputs from IANS)