After a midnight seat settlement with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal (United) released its first list of 70 candidates on Tuesday for Bihar assembly polls. Tickets have been given to 13 Lok Janshakti Party candidates and three independents, who had supported Nitish Kumar to come to power.
"We have reached an agreement that JD(U) will contest 141 seats this time, three more than in February, leaving the rest 102 for BJP," JD(U) Parliamentary Board chairman Sharad Yadav told a press conference.
Releasing the list, he said, "The two parties have amicably resolved the issues related to seat-sharing to accommodate all LJP and independent MLAs who had joined the party."
The first list has 13 women candidates and the five sitting independents had been renominated for Nawada, Gobindpur, Muzaffarpur, Matihani and Sonebarsa. BJP has already declared names of 80 candidates, which include 39 MLAs of the dissolved House.
Claiming there would be no hung Assembly this time and the National Democratic Alliance would be given a clear majority in the state, Yadav charged the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre with setting 'dangerous' precedents by keeping a chargesheeted minister in the cabinet.
"Just for the sake of clinging to power, the prime minister has thrown all moral values to the wind," Yadav said, referring to the fresh chargesheet against Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in the multi-crore fodder scam. "This is dangerous for the country," he added.
