Patna/ New Delhi, 14 Oct

The ruling BJP on Tuesday sprang surprises with its first list of 71 candidates for the Bihar Assembly polls, denying a ticket to Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, a seven-term MLA, while fielding Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary in a direct election after over a decade.

Health and Law Minister Mangal Pandey, a member of thelegislative council, has also been fielded by the party for the polls.

While Choudhary, who had last won an assembly election from Parbatta in 2010 on an RJD ticket, has been fielded from adjoining Tarapur, Pandey has been named the BJP candidate from Siwan.

Notably, both Choudhary and Pandey are former state BJP presidents, and so is Yadav, who has been replaced in Patna Sahib with Sanjay Kumar Gupta, a low-key state secretary of the party.

The 72-year-old speaker of the outgoing assembly, who was said to be hoping for a ticket for his son, however, promptly came out with a social media post, announcing, "I stand with the decision taken by the BJP. I have no complaints. I welcome the new generation of leadership."

Yadav was first elected an MLA way back in 1995, from Patna East, which was renamed as Patna Sahib after the delimitation in 2008, and was seen as the last surviving BJP heavyweight of his generation in the state after the death of former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.

A surprise inclusion in the list of candidates was that of Ram Kripal Yadav, a former Union minister who had joined the BJP in 2014, growing disillusioned with his former mentor Lalu Prasad, the RJD president. He defeated Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti twice in the Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency, but lost the elections held last year.

He has been given the party ticket from Danapur, a seat on the outskirts of Patna, currently represented by RJD strongman Reet Lal Yadav.

Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha, who did a hat-trick in Lakhisarai in the last elections, has been fielded from the same constituency again.

Several other ministers also feature in the list, including Renu Devi (Bettiah), Nitin Nabin (Bankipur), Nitish Mishra (Jhanjharpur), Jibesh Mishra (Jale), Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga), Neeraj Kumar Singh Bablu (Chhatapur) and Kedar Prasad Gupta (Kurhani), all of whom have been renominated from their sitting seats.

Art and Culture Minister Motilal Prasad has, however, been dropped, and his Riga seat has gone to Baidyanath Prasad.

BJP sources put the number of sitting MLAs who have been denied a second chance at "around 10".

The list includes nine women, including ace shooter Shreyasi Singh, who made her debut from Jamui five years ago.

Turncoats and new entrants have also been rewarded. Siddharth Saurav, who had won the Bikram seat on a Congress ticket in 2020, has been named the BJP candidate from there, a day after his formal induction into the party.

Former JD(U) MP Sunil Kumar Pintu and retired civil servant Sujit Kumar Singh, who had also joined the BJP on Monday, have been given tickets from Sitamarhi and Gaura Bauram, respectively.