The BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) released its first list of 71 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly election on Tuesday (October 14, 2025), with more than half belonging to disadvantaged communities. Only nine are women.
Two members of the Bihar Legislative Council — the State’s Upper House, whose members are elected indirectly — are now being fielded in the direct election for the Assembly, the Lower House. Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who last contested the Assembly election in 2010 from the Parbatta Assembly seat, is now being fielded from the Tarapur seat, and will file his nomination on October 16, while Health Minister Mangal Pandey will contest from the Siwan Assembly seat.
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Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha is also being retained as the candidate from his Lakhisarai Assembly seat. They are among 13 BJP Ministers in the Bihar Cabinet who are being retained. In all, this first list includes 46 sitting MLAs.
Speaker dropped
However, ten sitting MLAs have been dropped by the BJP’s central leadership, including Bihar Assembly Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, who has been replaced in the Patna Sahib seat by new candidate Ratnesh Kushwaha.
“I stand by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s decision. The BJP has given me a lot. I have no complaints with the party. The new generation is welcomed and congratulated. The people of Patna Sahib Assembly have made me victorious seven consecutive times. I will never forget the affection and love they gave me as a BJP candidate. I am grateful to everyone,” Mr. Yadav said in a statement after the announcement.
The other sitting MLAs who have been dropped are Motilal Prasad (Riga), Ramprit Paswan (Rajnagar), Jai Prakash Yadav (Narpatganj), Ram Surat Kumar (Aurai), Nikki Hembram (Katoria), Arun Sinha (Kumhrar), Amrendra Pratap (Ara), Pranav Kumar (Munger), and Swarna Singh (Gaura Bauram), who had contested the last Assembly election as a Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) candidate, and later joined BJP.
New faces
Former MP Ram Kripal Yadav, who lost the Patliputra Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general election to the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Misa Bharti, has now been fielded from the Danapur Assembly seat.
The BJP has changed its candidates in seven Assembly constituencies where they had lost in the 2020 election, including Sitamarhi, Siwan, Danapur, Bikram, Arwal, Aurangabad, and Gurua.
There has also been some seat exchanges among allies in the ruling NDA, with BJP candidates set to contest the election in Tegra and Tarapur, which had been previously contested by Janata Dal (United) candidates.
Women’s representation
Rama Nishad, who joined the BJP on October 13 along with her husband and former MP Ajay Nishad, has been rewarded a day later by being named the party’s candidate from the Aurai Assembly seat.
The other women who recieved tickets are Shreyasi Singh (Jamui), Aruna Devi (Warsaliganj), Kavita Devi (Korha), Nisha Singh (Pranpur), Sweety Singh (Kishanganj), Devanti Yadav (Narpatganj), Gaytri Devi (Parihar), and former Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi (Bettiah).
Maithili Thakur, a folk and devotional musician from Mithilanchal, joined the BJP on Tuesday (October 14) in the presence of BJP State president Dilip Kumar Jaiswal. The party is likely to field her from the Alinagar Assembly seat in Darbhanga district.
Caste calculus
“All communities have been represented in the first list of the BJP. Be it Other Backward Classes (OBC), Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) and women are included in the list. Twenty OBCs, 11 EBC, 6 candidates from SC-ST communities in its first list. More than 50% of the tickets have gone to deprived communities,” said BJP media in-charge Danish Iqbal.
“Eleven Bhumihars, 7 Brahmins, 15 Rajputs, and 15 Kayastha have been given tickets. New faces have also got adequate space in the ticket lists in seats like Kumhrar, Patna Sahib, Rajnagar and Aurangabad,” he added.
HAMS names all candidates
The BJP has chosen to retain the Lalganj and Hajipur Assembly seats, both in Vaishali district, bucking the expectation that they would go its ally, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), led by Chirag Paswan. The LJP (RV) was also known to be eyeing the Hisua Assembly seat in Nawada district, which the BJP has retained as well.
The seat adjustment within the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was finalised on Sunday (October 12). The BJP and JD(U) will contest 101 seats each, with the LJP (RV) getting 29 seats. The Rashtriya Lok Morcha led by Upendra Kushwaha, and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) led by Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, got 6 seats each.
HAMS named all six of its candidates on Tuesday (October 14), with tickets going to Mr. Manjhi’s daughter-in-law Deepa Kumari (Imamganj) and his sister-in-law Jyoti Devi (Barachatti). Anil Kumar has been fielded from Tikari, Rohit Kumar from Atri, Praful Kumar Manjhi from Sikandra, and Lalan Ram from Kutumba.
The other NDA partners have not yet released their candidate lists. However, a few JD(U) candidates filed their nominations on Tuesday (October 14), including Anant Singh (Mokama), Bijendra Prasad Yadav (Supaul), and JD(U) State president Umesh Singh Kushwaha (Mahnar).
Published – October 14, 2025 03:20 pm IST