'Disappointed' RLSP says BJP 'should have taken us into confidence'

The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) on Wednesday expressed disappointment with the BJP's move to release the first list of 43 candidates for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. It said that it would raise this issue at an appropriate forum.

"They declared the seats (first list) without taking us into confidence. We will register our protest at an appropriate forum," RLSP leader Faisal Imam told ANI.

The BJP yesterday declared the list of the 43 candidates, who would contest the Bihar polls. Of them, 19 are for seats going to polls in the first phase, 15 for the second phase and 9 for the third phase.

The names were finalised at a meeting of BJP's Central Election Committee yesterday evening. The meeting chaired by BJP president Amit Shah was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and other members of the CEC.

The BJP will contest 160 of the 243 seats in Bihar, Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will contest 40 seats, Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP will contest 23 seats while Jitan Ram Manhji's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) will contest 20 seats.

The term of the 243-member Bihar assembly comes to an end on November 29. The polls in the state will begin on October 12 and conclude on November 5. Counting of votes will take place on November 8.