Patna, Oct. 26 -- Two sons of a former Union minister pitted against each other, a husband and a wife contesting from neighbouring constituencies (from the same party), and several members of a family contesting from one party -- all reflect the influence of powerful political families in Bihar. In several constituencies, veteran leaders have passed the political baton to their children, even grandchildren. In all, about a fifth of the candidates from the main political parties in the fray are from the political families, according to an analysis of candidate lists announced by political parties. Around a third of the tickets allocated by the main opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are to dynasts and over half of the tickets issued by Jiten Ram Manjhi's Hindustan Awam Morcha - Secular (HAM-S), part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), have gone to his own family. Around 18% of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 101 candidates are dynasts, as are 17% of partner Janata Dal - United's (JD-U) 101 . Poll strategist and Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor has been hitting out at dynastic politics but he too has fielded former Union minister RCP Singh's daughter Lata Singh from Asthawan and former Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur's granddaughter Jagriti Thakur from Morwa. "The most dynasts are in the RJD, BJP and the JD-U -- the three big parties. One can find son, daughter, wife, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, even grandchildren in the electoral fray. According to a report, over 70 MLAs came from political families in 2020, with the maximum from the RJD, though BJP and JD-U were not far behind," said former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies DM Diwakar. In RJD, the Opposition's chief minister face Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who is the son of former CM Lalu Prasad, is contesting from Raghopur, which he has already won three times. His elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, expelled from the RJD, is contesting from Mahua on the ticket of his own party, Janshakti Janata Dal. The RJD's other dynastic candidates are the late Md Shahabuddin's son Osama Shahab (Raghunathpur), former MP Shivanand Tiwari's son Rahul Tiwari (Shahpur) and former RJD state chief Jagdanand Singh's son Ajeet Singh (Ramgarh). In the NDA, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) of Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has given three of his six seats to family members -- fielding daughter-in-law Deepa Kumari from Imamganj, Deepa's mother Jyoti Devi from Barachatti and son-in-law Praful Manjhi from Sikandra. Another NDA ally, Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) of Upendra Kushwaha, has fielded dynasts in three of the six seats it is contesting. In the JD-U, some of the prominent dynasts contesting are Sheohar MP Lovely Anand's son Chetan Anand (Nabinagar) and MP Veena Devi and MLC Dinesh Singh's daughter Komal Singh (Gayaghat). The children of at least eight former MPs and MLAs have also been fielded. Political analyst Nawal Kishore Choudhary said the only missing dynast is chief minister Nitish Kumar's son Nishant, adding that Kumar had never allowed his family members to get into politics, though he has not been able to make his party leaders emulate him. "All parties go for winnability and dynasts fare better." The BJP, too, has a fair share of dynasts in the fray, including Shreyasi Sindh (daughter of former minister Digvijay Singh) from Jamui, Trivikram Singh (son of former MP Gopal Narayan Singh) from Aurangabad, Nitin Nabin (son of former MLA Naveen Kishore Prasad Sinha) from Bankipor, Rama Nishad (wife of former MP Ajay Nishad) from Aurai, and Vishal Prashant (son of former MLA Suni Pandey) from Tarari. In Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), party chief and Union minister Chirag Paswan's nephew Seemant Mrinal has been fielded from Garkha. Some families have more than one candidate in the fray. In Nawada district, strongman Kaushal Yadav and his wife Purnima Yadav are contesting on the RJD ticket from Nawada and Govindpur Assembly seats, respectively. Both were MLAs earlier....