BJP releases names of 46 nominees for Phase 2 Bihar polls

The BJP on Sunday released a list of 46 candidates for the 2nd phase of the Bihar elections slated for November 3, including Nand Kishore Yadav from the prestigious Patna Sahib constituency.

Renu Devi has been fielded from Betia and Asha Sinha from Danapur. Siwan seat will see BJP's Om Prakash Yadav in the fray and Avdesh Singh in Hajipur. Kundan Singh has been fielded from Begusarai, Rohit Pande from Bhagalpur, and Subhash Singh from Gopalganj.

The 46 candidates were given the nod in BJP's Central Election Committee meeting on Saturday night, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and others.

The two BJP lists released earlier had the names of 27 and two candidates.

The BJP got 121 of the total 243 seats in Bihar and ally Janata Dal-United 122 seats. The JD-U was expected to accommodate Hindustani Awam Morcha in its quota of seats and the BJP Vikassheel Insaan Party.

On October 7, the BJP had allocated 11 seats to the Vikassheel Insaan Party from its own quota, thus choosing to contest 110 seats in all.

NDA ally Lok Janshakti Party had decided to go solo and field candidates against the JD-U in Bihar.

The elections for 243 Assembly seats will be held in three phases -- for 71 seats on October 28, for 94 seats on November 3, and remaining 78 on November 7. The results will be announced on November 10.