Patna, Oct. 15 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released the first list of 71 candidates for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, naming two sitting deputy chief ministers, 10 fresh faces and two turncoats, and dropping the speaker and two incumbent lawmakers. The announcement came amid a churn in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which announced its seat-sharing arrangement over the weekend but has since been stuck in tense talks among allies driving hard bargains. There are three days to go for the nomination to close for the first phase, when 122 seats go to the polls on November 6. In the second phase, 121 seats will go to the polls on November 11, and the votes will be counted on November 14. Later in the day, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) released a list of six candidates, repeating four of them and dropping one. The BJP list included 35 people from general castes, six from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities, 11 from other backward classes and 19 from extremely backward classes. The list contained nine women including minister Renu Devi, Gayatri Devi, Devanti Yadav and Rama Nishad. The party denied tickets to three sitting MLAs, including assembly speaker and seven-time MLA from Patna Sahib, Nand Kishore Yadav, and changed candidates on 19 seats. Nearly 50 candidates were retained. The second list of 30 candidates will be released soon, party office bearers said. "I stand with the decision taken by the BJP. I have no complaints. I welcome the new generation of leadership," said Nand Kishore Yadav who was first elected in 1995. Two ex-MPs, Ram Kripal Yadav (from Danapur) and Sunil Kumar Pintu (from Sitamarhi) were picked. The list also includes the names of three former MLCs, one former MLA, a Congress turncoat and the wife of an ex-MP. Ram Kripal Yadav defeated Misa Bharti of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) from Danapur twice in 2014 and 2019, but lost to her in 2024. Pintu, an ex-Janata Dal (United) MP from Sitamarhi, was denied a ticket and joined the BJP on Monday. Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, who is a member of the legislative council, will contest from Tarapur and another deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha was retained from Lakhisarai. Sitting MLC and state cabinet member Mangal Pandey will contest from Siwan. Choudhary will be contesting elections after over a decade and last won an assembly election from Parbatta in 2010 on a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ticket. Two other sitting MLAs - Arun Kumar Sinha (Kumhrar) and Amrendra Pratap Singh (Ara) - were denied tickets. Sujit Kumar Singh, an IRS officer who joined the BJP on Monday after resigning from civil service, will replace his wife Swarna Singh from the Gaura Bauram seat. Some other prominent names on the list include Prem Kumar from Gaya, former deputy chief minister Tarkishore Prasad from Katihar and Alok Ranjan Jha from Saharsa. Several ministers also featured 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 were renominated. Art and culture minister Motilal Prasad however, was dropped, and his Riga seat went to Baidyanath Prasad....