Political parties are in burning the midnight oil ahead of the second phase of Bihar polls to be held for 94 assembly seats in 17 districts.
A total of 1,464 candidates are contesting, out of which, 147 are women. 34 percent of contenders have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.
41 percent of candidates who have their age between 25 to 40 years, whereas 49 percent of candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years.
Darauli assembly constituency has the lowest number of candidates at four, while the highest of 27 people are in the fray in the Maharajganj seat.
Key Assembly seats
Bankipur seat:
This seat is going to witness the most intense battle of this phase.
Congress has fielded actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha’s son Luv. Opposing him will be sitting BJP MLA Nitin Navin. He has served this constituency for two consecutive terms.
Interestingly, the founder of Plural’s party, Pushpam Priya is also fighting for this seat.
Raghopur seat:
This constituency is considered an RJD stronghold with a sizeable number of Yadav voters.
Chief Ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav is seeking re-election from this seat. BJP has fielded Satish Kumar, who defeated Rabri Devi in 2010 by more than 5000 votes.
Nalanda seat:
Nalanda district has always welcomed its son Nitish Kumar with open arms. It has been an impregnable fortress for JD(U) which has fielded Shravan Kumar from this seat. He also holds charge of Rural Development and Parliamentary Affairs ministry.
State youth Congress Gunjan Patel will contest from this seat. Recently, Nitish Kumar faced criticism on his home turf. People in Nalanda chanted anti-JDU slogans at Chief Minister’s rally.
Also read: Battle For Bihar: PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi lock horns
Siwan seat:
Former minister Awadh Bihari Chaudhary is posing a great threat to NDA and the grand alliance by entering as an independent candidate from Siwan. JD(U) has fielded a new face from the constituency denying ticket to Awadh Bihari Chaudhary.
In 2015, BJP candidate Vyas Deo Prasad won the Siwan constituency seat with a margin of 2.2% securing 55156 votes against JD(U) candidate Bablu Prasad.
Chapra seat:
BJP has fielded Dr. CN Gupta at this seat, who is the first non-Yadav, non-Rajput MLA from Chapra. He will contest against RJD’s Randhir Kumar Singh and BSP’s Manoj Kumar. In the 2015 Assembly Elections, Dr. C.N. Gupta won by defeating Randhir Kumar Singh with a margin of 11,379 votes.
Renu Devi will contest from Bettiah, Mithilesh Tiwari from Baikunthpur, and Asha Sinha from Danapur Assembly Constituency.
Former MP and senior LJP leader Kali Pandey who had joined the Congress two days back has been fielded from the Kuchaikote seat.
Meanwhile, Asif Ghafoor, son of former Bihar CM Abdul Ghafoor is also fighting from Gopalganj.
