Patna: A total of 94 candidates are in the fray for by-elections to 10 Bihar Assembly seats to be held on August 21 after the last date of withdrawal of nominations got over today.
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ajay V Nayak said altogether 104 persons had filed nomination papers to contest the by-polls of which eight of them were rejected during the scrutiny and two people withdrew their nominations.
Of the 10 seats, Hajipur tops in the number of contestants with 15 in the fray. It is followed by Chapra, Mohiuddinagar and Parbatta with 11 each. Narkatiyaganj has 10 candidates, Jale has nine, Mohania eight, while Bhagalpur has seven.
Banka and Rajnagar assembly constituencies have the least number of candidates, tied at six each. Five of the 10 Assembly seats going to polls fell vacant after the MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha, while the other five became vacant following resignations due to political reasons.
The by-elections on the 10 seats are being touted as the semi-final before the full-fledged Assembly polls scheduled next year.
These constituencies will see triangular contest between JD (U) - RJD - Congress alliance, NDA, and the CPI, CPI (M) and CPI (ML) alliance. The counting of votes will take places on August 25.
