Bihar polls: Congress' full list of 70 candidates out; Shatrughan Sinha's son gets ticket

More than a week after Congress announced 21 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly election, the party on Thursday declared its list of the remaining 49 candidates. 21, 24 and 25 Congress members will contest in the first, second and third phase respectively. The lists were finalized by the party's Central Election Committee.

Sharad Yadav's daughter Subhashini Raj Rao (Bihariganj) and Shatrughan Sinha's son Luv (Bankipur) are among the prominent candidates to get the Congress ticket. Only 7 (10%) of the overall Congress candidates are women. On the other hand, the party has given tickets to 11 Muslims. Congress has named 30 'star campaigners' including party president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra, former PM Manmohan Singh, Amarinder Singh, Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel.

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Here is the list of Congress candidates: 

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Mahagatbandhan seat-sharing

Out of the other Mahagatbandhan seats, RJD, CPI(M-L), CPI and CPM shall field candidates from 144, 19, 6 and 4 constituencies each. Contrary to the initial announcement, JMM has not been allocated any seats from RJD's quota. Earlier in the day, it was revealed that CPI(M-L) candidates will fight the election from Paliganj, Arrah, Agiaon, Tarari, Dumraon, Karakat, Arwal, Ghosi, Bhore, Ziradei, Darauli, Daraundi, Digha, Phulwari, Sikta, Balrampur, Aurai, Kalyanpur and Warisnagar. Vikash Mandal (Rupauli), Ramnaresh Pandey (Harlakhi), Suryakant Paswan (Bakhri), Ram Ratan Singh (Teghra), Abdhesh Kumar Ray (Bachhwara) and Ramnarayan Yadav (Jhanjharpur) have been named as the CPI candidates. For the CPM, Rajmangal Kushwaha, Satyendra Yadav Manjhi, Ajay Kumar and Rajendra Prasad Singh will contest from Pipra, Manjhi, Bibhutipur, and Matihani respectively. 

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Bihar polls

The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243 members out of which 38 seats are reserved for SC and two for ST. In the 2015 state polls, the Mahagatbandhan comprising RJD, JD(U) and Congress won a whopping majority with 178 seats under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. On the other hand, the BJP-led alliance won from only 58 constituencies. On July 26, 2017, Nitish Kumar stepped down as the CM citing irreconcilable differences with RJD over corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav and joined hands with its former ally BJP.

The upcoming Assembly election will be held in 3 phases- October 28, November 3 and November 7.  To decongest polling stations, the voting time has been increased by one hour. Thus, people will be able to cast their votes from 7 am to 6 pm barring for the areas affected by Left-wing extremism. The counting of votes will take place on November 10.

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