Patna: Amid tall claims of “all is well” and counter claims of “NDA will pay a price”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released the first list of 71 candidates. Significantly, the BJP has dropped the Bihar Assembly Speaker and veteran party legislator Nand Kishore Yadav, who won seven times as the BJP MLA from Patna Sahib Assembly constituency.

The saffron camp, which has so far tried to assuage the ruffled feathers of junior allies like Jitan Ram Manjhi and Upendra Kushwaha – both miffed over being allotted merely six seats each as against Chirag Paswan’s LJP getting 29 seats to contest – has asked its Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary to contest from Tarapur in Munger district.

Samrat is presently an MLC and has been mired in controversy over his age certificate. Samra

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