Bihar polls: RJD announces 143 candidates; Tejashwi from Raghopur
Meanwhile, Congress has decided to change its candidate in Supaul. The party fielded Minnatullah Rahmani in place of Anupam Kumar, who had been given the symbol earlier
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday (October 20) released its list of 143 candidates for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. Out of the 143 candidates, there are 24 women candidates.
Tejashwi to contest from Raghopur
Tejashwi Yadav will contest from Raghopur constituency, Lalit Yadav from Darbhanga Rural, and Dilip Singh from Barauli, Ram Vilas Paswan in Pirpainti (SC), and Savitri Devi in Chakai.
The other candidates include Renu Kushwaha in Bihariganj constituency, Anita Devi Mahto in Warsaliganj, Mala Pushpam in Hasanpur, Sandhya Rani Kushwaha in Madhuban, Ritu Priya Chaudhary in Imamganj (SC), Tanushree Manjhi in Barachatti (SC), Chandni Devi Singh in Baniapur constituency, Arvind Sahani in Sarairanjan, Prema Chaudhary in Patepur (SC), Shambu Nath in Brahampur, and Mukesh Yadav in Bajpatti.
Also Read: Bihar polls: Congress releases list of 6 more candidates, taking total to 60
Includes four seats Congress is contesting
According to an ANI report, there are four seats where both the RJD and Congress have fielded candidates despite both being part of the Grand Alliance.
In Narkatiaganj, Deepak Yadav (RJD) will face Shaswat Kedar Pandey (Congress); in Kahalgaon, Rajnish Bharti (RJD) will compete against Praveen Singh Kushwaha (Congress); and in Sikandra (SC), Uday Narayan Chaudhary (RJD) will go up against Vinod Chaudhary (Congress), while in Lalganj (Vaishali) the RJD's Shivani Shukla could go against Congress' Aditya Kumar Raja.
Also Read: Bihar polls: Congress faces unrest, challenges over selection of candidates
Congress changes Supaul candidate
Meanwhile, Congress has decided to change its candidate in Supaul. The party fielded Minnatullah Rahmani in place of Anupam Kumar, who had been given the symbol earlier, though his name was not officially announced. Over the past two days, Anupam's tweets between 2012 and 2016 in which he had mocked Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and Dr Manmohan Singh had gone viral.
Earlier in the day, Congress announced six additional candidates, bringing the party’s total number of candidates to 60. The decision was made in the early hours amid ongoing disagreements over seat‐sharing between the Congress and its alliance partner, RJD, within the Mahagathbandhan.
The six new candidates are Surendra Prasad Kushwaha (Valmiki Nagar), Abidur Rehman (Araria), Jalil Mastan (Amour), Tauquir Alam (Barari), Praveen Singh Kushwaha (Kahalgaon) and Vinod Chaudhary (Sikandra SC).
Earlier, the Congress had unveiled other batches of candidates, including 48 on October 16, followed by a single nomination and then five more. The filing of nomination papers for the second and final phase of polling is due on Monday.