Battlelines drawn for first phase of Bihar polls, 586 in fray

PATNA: Saturday saw 586 candidates entering the fray for the first phase of Bihar assembly elections to be held on October 12 with the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers for the first phase of elections to 49 assembly constituencies ending.
"Altogether 19 candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers. In five constituencies, two EVMs will be used as the number of candidates is more than 15. These constituencies are Samastipur (17), Morva (18), Mohiuddinagar (18), Sheikhpura (17) and Jamui (16)," additional chief electoral officer of Bihar R Lakshmanan told TOI.
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Among the major contenders in the first phase are HAM (S) state president Shakuni Chaudhary who will contest from his old turf Tarapur in Munger and his son Rajesh Kumar alias Rohit, who will be the party candidate from Khagaria.While JD(U) has pitched educationist Mewalal Chaudhary from Tarapur, party’s sitting MLA Poonam Devi Yadav will take on Rajesh Kumar in Khagaria.
In Samastipur's Kalyanpur constituency, LJP MP Ram Chandra Paswan's son Prince Raj is locked in a fight with JD(U)'s Maheshwar Hazari. Jivach Paswan of CPI (ML-Liberation) as well as JMM and BSP candidates may pose some challenge to these two leaders who are otherwise locked in a direct fight.
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Sitting Congress MLA and former speaker of Bihar assembly Sadanand Singh will fight it out with LJP's Niraj Kumar Mandal, SP's Shobhakant Mandal, BSP's Manoj Kumar Yadav, CPI's Sanjit Suman and CPM's Sanjiv Kumar in a bid to retain Kahalgaon seat. Another sitting Congress MLA Ajit Sharma from Bhagalpur will have to fight against BJP's Arijit Shashwat, son of former state minister and Buxar MP Ashwini Choubey.
In Begusarai, also known as 'Leningrad of Bihar', CPI's sitting MLA Abdhesh Kumar Rai is locked in a triangular fight with LJP's Arvind Kumar Singh and former minister Ramdeo Rai from Congress in Bachchwara constituency. Another triangular contest will be witnessed in Alauli (Khagaria) where state LJP president Pashupati Kumar Paras will take on RJD's Chandan Kumar and CPI's Manoj Sada.
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Former minister Narendra Singh's son Ajay Pratap had to fight tooth and nail for a BJP ticket from Jamui amid protests from ally LJP. Sitting MLA Pratap is locked in a straight fight with RJD's Vijay Prakash. In Chakai, sitting MLA Sumit Kumar Singh, another son of Narendra Singh, is fighting as an independent after he was denied ticket by the NDA. He will take on LJP's Vijay Singh and RJD's Savitri Devi.