Patna, Oct. 15 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released the first list of 71 candidates for the two-phased Bihar assembly elections scheduled on November 6 and 11. The party, however, 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 51 candidates have been retained in the first list. The second list of 30 candidates will be released soon, party office bearers said. The first list contains names of nine women including minister Renu Devi, Gayatri Devi, Devanti Yadav and Rama Nishad. Two ex-MPs, Ram Kripal Yadav (from Danapur) and Sunil Kumar Pintu (Sitamarhi) would be contesting the assembly polls. The list also includes the names of three ex-MLC, one ex-MLA, a Congress turncoat and a wife of an ex-MP. Yadav, had lost to Misa Bharti of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) from Danapur in Lok Sabha 2024 elections while Pintu, an ex-Janata Dal (United) MP from Sitamarhi, was denied ticket and joined BJP on Monday. The list includes the names of 35 forwards, six SC-ST candidates, 11 OBCs, and EBC 19. "I stand with the decision taken by the BJP. I have no complaints. I welcome the new generation of leadership," said Nand KishoreYadav who was first elected an MLA way back in 1995, from Patna East, which was renamed as Patna Sahib after the delimitation in 2008, and was seen as the last surviving BJP heavyweight of his generation in the state after the death of former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi. Deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary, who is a member of the legislative council, will contest from Tarapur, while another deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha has been retained from Lakhisarai. Sitting MLC and Nitish Kumar-led NDA cabinet member Mangal Pandey will be contesting from the Siwan seat. Choudhary would be contesting elections after over a decade. While Choudhary, who had last won an assembly election from Parbatta in 2010 on an RJD ticket, has been fielded from adjoining Tarapur, Pandey has been named the BJP candidate from Siwan. Notably, both Choudhary and Pandey are former state BJP presidents, and so is Yadav, who has been replaced in Patna Sahib with Sanjay Kumar Gupta, a low-key state secretary of the party. Two other sitting MLAs - Arun Kumar Sinha (Kumhrar) and Amrendra Pratap Singh (Ara) - have been 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. The first list, however, does not include folk singer Maithali Thakur. 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 other ministers also feature 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 have been renominated from their sitting seats. Art and culture minister Motilal Prasad has, however, been dropped, and his Riga seat has gone to Baidyanath Prasad. Turncoats and new entrants have also been rewarded. Siddharth Saurav, who had won the Bikram seat on a Congress ticket in 2020, has been named the BJP candidate from there, a day after his formal induction into the party. The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had on Sunday announced its seat-sharing formula, wherein the BJP and JD(U) will contest on 101 seats each, while LJP (Ram Vilas) will contest on 29, and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha will contest six seats each. The NDA alliance comprises the BJP, JD(U), LJP (Ram Vilas), HAM (Secular), and Rashtriya Lok Morcha....