(From left) RJD leaders Ilias Hussain, Shakeel Ahmed Khan and Ram Kripal Yadav release the names of candidates at the Maurya hotel in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 30: The RJD is keen to woo upper caste voters, particularly the Rajputs, but it is yet to come out of its MY (Muslim-Yadav) formula in allotting seats.

Of the names of the 65 candidates the party declared today for the first two phases of polls, only three seats were given to the upper caste candidates. One among them is a Brahmin and the two others are Rajputs. The official list was released at Maurya hotel in the state capital

Of the 65 RJD candidates named today, only two are women. They are Aruna Mehta from Nirmali constituency and Shanti Devi from Raniganj. Seven seats have been reserved for the Scheduled Castes. Ten Muslims have been given tickets for the first phase of polls and six for the second.

Yet RJD leaders Shakeel Ahmad Khan and Ram Kripal Yadav insisted that all sections of the society had been given adequate representation.

RJD spokesperson Shakil Ahmad Khan said: “The party has released a list of 31 can- didates for the first phase and 34 candidates for the second phase.”

Equality song

Rajya Sabha MP and national general secretary of the RJD Ram Kripal Yadav said: “All sections of the society have been given adequate representation in the list. Almost all the sitting MLAs have been accommodated. A few may have missed out due to delimitation.”

The RJD retained sitting MLAs Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Ramchandra Purve, Akhtarul Imam, Dr Abdul Gafoor, Shanti Devi, Lalit Kumar Yadav, Musafir Paswan, Pitambar Paswan, Ravindra Kumar Raman, Ram Prakash Mahato and Raman and Ramvichar Rai. Only two sitting MLAs — Ramchandra Nishad and Ashok Verma — have not been given tickets.

All happy

Media in-charge of RJD Chotu Singh said: “All candidates are happy with the constituency given to them. There is a sense of great relief and happiness among the party workers. The RJD chief has personally checked the winning potential of the candidates. He ensured that nobody with criminal antecedents got ticket. The same strategy will be followed while preparing the next four lists of candidates.”

The RJD and LJP would contest the elections together. The RJD would contest in 168 seats and the rest 75 seats would be contested by the LJP.

The RJD-LJP combine is keen to come back to power in Bihar. The RJD has been trying to retain its vote bank, including the Yadavs and Muslims. The party is also keen to get a share of the upper caste votes.

JD(U) candidates

The JD (U) today released its second list of 73 candidates. The party had released the list of 54 nominees yesterday.

Unlike the first list, the second has as many as 18 new faces. The dropping of 18 MLAs is being interpreted as being the result of delimitation of some constituencies.

While the list features Gajanand Shahi, the grandson of educationist and reformer Sir Ganesh Dutta, it also has Anu Shukla, the wife of don Munna Shukla, convicted in the murder of an IAS officer, and Anant Singh, the don of Mokamah who faces numerous cases of murder and other crimes.