Ranchi, Nov. 3: The BJP today released the first list of candidates for 59 Assembly seats, keeping aside nominations for 22 seats as a bargaining tool for talks with the JD (U) tomorrow.

The list was issued late in the evening after a central election committee meeting that was attended by L. K. Advani, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and others. BJP state president Raghubar Das and Arjun Munda were also present. Earlier, the party’s seat-sharing talks with the JD (U) hit a roadblock.

The saffron brigade retained most old faces. It gave tickets to two former MLAs, Ramji Lal Sharda from Hatia and Arun Mandal from Rajmahal. Both had revolted in 2005 after being denied nominations.

The six women candidates named by the party were Luis Marandi from Dumka, Poonam Prakash (Gandey), Kunti Singh (Jharia), Menaka Sardar (Potka), Bimla Pradhan (Simdega) and Rakhi Rai from Jugsalai.

The party ignored three sitting MLAs, including Chandresh Oraon, who was replaced by Bhikhari Bhagat in Naxal-hit Vishunpur. The others were Chatru Ram Mahto (Gomia) and Sunil Soren (Jama). New new entrants in the party, Prashant Mandal and Dilip Singh Namdhari, will be fielded from Poraiyahat and Daltonganj respectively.

Among the others who bagged tickets were Ravindra Rai (Dhanwar) and Kunti Devi (Jharia), who had left to join the Babulal Marandi bandawagon, only to come back. The party held back declaring the nominee for Kharsawan constituency, the seat represented by Arjun Munda. His wife Meera Munda is said to be eyeing the seat.

Earlier, talks with JD (U) ended in a stalemate. According to JD (U) MLC Bhim Singh, the talks would continue tomorrow.