Key candidates in Bihar elections

Bihar witnessed three phases of elections this year in which over 1.06 lakh polling booths were used to cast votes. Here's a list of the key candidates whose fates will be decided on November 10.

Hyderabad: Bihar witnessed three phases of elections this year in which over 1.06 lakh polling booths were used to cast votes.

According to the election commission (EC), this year the number of polling stations was increased by 63 per cent compared to 2015 assembly polls.

Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) Chandra Bhushan Kumar said at a press conference that polling took place at 1,06,515 booths in Bihar elections. He said the number of polling officials also increased and out of the five lakh election officials who were pressed into service, 30 percent were women.

Key candidates in Bihar elections

Key candidates in Bihar elections

Phase 1: Prominent faces in Bihar elections

Among the major political parties, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party JD(U) is contesting in 35 of the 71 seats, followed by its ally BJP in 29 seats. The opposition RJD fielded its candidates in 42 seats and its coalition partner Congress was in the fray in 20 assembly segments.

phase 1

Lok Janshakti Party, headed by Chirag Paswan, contested 41 seats, which included all the 35 seats contested by the ruling JD(U). It was a move in lines with the instructions given by the young party president, who recently pulled out of the NDA in the state, to "dislodge" the chief minister from power.

Another prominent candidate is BJP's debutant Shreyasi Singh, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist shooter, contesting from the Jamui assembly seat.

Trump cards for second phase elections

Notable among the candidates was the RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, the opposition Grand Alliance's Chief Ministerial candidate, who aggressively tried to cash-in on the anti-incumbency factor against the Nitish Kumar government.

The 31-year-old is seeking re-election from Raghopur in Vaishali district which he had wrested back for his party from the BJP's Satish Kumar in 2015. The BJP leader had defeated Yadav's mother and former chief minister Rabri Devi in 2010.

Tejashwi's elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav is trying his luck from Hasanpur in Samastipur district, shifting his base from Mahua in Vaishali.

Key candidates for Phase III

Prominent candidates include Vijay Kumar Chaudhary of JD(U) who is the speaker of the outgoing assembly, famed for his ability to win over hostile opponents with a disarming smile, seeking a hat-trick in Sarairanjan.

JD(U) ministers in the fray are Bijendra Prasad Yadav (Supaul), Narendra Narayan Yadav (Alamnagar), Maheshwar Hazari (Kalyanpur), Ramesh Rishideo (Singheshwar), Khurshid alias Firoz Ahmed (Sikta), Lakshmeshwar Roy (Laukaha), Bima Bharti (Rupauli) and Madan Sahni (Bahadurpur).