Amid raging confusion among Bihar ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Opposition mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) blocs over constituencies to contest the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is all geared up to kick-off his poll campaign from tomorrow, October 16, 2025 (Thursday) from Samastipur district.
Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) on Wednesday (October 15, 2025) released party’s first list of 57 candidates. The second and final list of party candidates would possibly be released by October 17.
Bihar Assembly elections LIVE: JD(U) releases first list of 57 candidates; 4 are women
Under NDA alliance JD(U) would be contesting on 101 seats with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on equal number of 101 seats, Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) on 29, former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) on six seats each.
It is said that both RLM leader Upendra Kushwaha and HAM(S) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi are not happy with the seats allocation. Mr. Kushwaha is said to be upset over the Mahua seat in Vaishali district for which he was assured to get, but it has gone into the kitty of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) [LJP (RV)].
Mr. Kushwaha along with senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister (State) Nityanand Rai has left for Delhi and expected to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah today to sort out the alleged “differences”.
Meanwhile, the JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha has while speaking to media persons on Wednesday (October 15, 2025) said, “Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is democratic leader, not autocratic and he takes every decision after consulting all stake holders but the final decision he takes of his own.”
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will kick off his poll campaign from tomorrow (October 16, 2025) from Samastipur and he may also go to Darbhanga as there is less time left for campaign,” added Mr. Jha.
With women’s vote proving decisive, NDA goes all out to garner support
Mr. Kumar, party sources told The Hindu, may go to Sarairanjan constituency of Samastipur district from where his Cabinet colleague and party MLA Vijay Kumar Choudhary will file his nomination papers on October 16. Mr. Choudhary is said to be very close to Mr. Kumar.
Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder and former poll-strategist Prashant Kishor too announced on Wednesday (October 15, 2025) that he would not contest the upcoming Assembly election as he has pressure of lot of responsibilities to campaign for party candidates.
“My party colleagues have taken decision that I should not contest the poll and I too am agreeing with them as I’ve lot of responsibilities to shoulder. I’ve to campaign for all party candidates”, said Mr. Kishor.
Earlier on October 12, Mr. Kishor had kicked-off party’s poll campaign from Raghopur Assembly constituency from where Opposition Leader in State Assembly from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav has been winning the poll from the last two consecutive terms 2015, 2020.
Mr. Yadav’s parents Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi too have, earlier, won Assembly poll from the Backward Yadav caste and upper caste Rajput community dominated constituency of Vaishali district.
Mr. Kishor earlier had announced that he wanted to contest poll either against Tejashwi Yadav or, from his janamsthan (birthplace) Kargahar constituency in Rohtas district. In the first list of the party released on October 9, 2025, JSP had announced name of Bjojpuri film singer and actor Ritesh Pandey to contest poll from Kargahar.
However, speculation was rife that Mr. Kishor might contest the poll from Raghopur constituency as he recently had kicked-off his party’s poll campaign from there.
However, late on Tuesday night (October 14, 2025) the party (JSP) named Chanchal Singh as nominee to contest the Raghopur seat. Mr. Singh is a local businessman and was previously associated with JD(U) but, later joined Jan Suraaj Party and is said to be working as vice-president of party’s youth wing.
Jan Suraaj Party announced names of some other party candidates along with Mr. Singh but the list was not released to media. Neither the press persons were invited on the occasion, unlike other two occasions when the list of party nominees were released. The first list had consisted names of 51 candidates, while the second list comprised 65 party candidates, totaling 116 out of which maximum number of candidates came from Extremely Backward Class (31) segment, followed by Backward (21), minority community (21) and general categories (14).
“Jiski jitni sankhya, usko utna representation humlog denge (those who have as much population will get that much of seat representation),” Mr. Kishor said while releasing the second list of party candidates in Patna.
Published – October 15, 2025 01:23 pm IST
