Amid intense speculations that the NDA seat-sharing deal has left him infuriated, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday gave away JD(U) tickets, by-passing the party's earlier practice of announcing the names of candidates at a press conference.

On the other hand, the BJP, which has been put on the same pedestal as the JD(U) for the first time in an assembly election, announced its first list of 71 candidates. Springing surprises, it denied a ticket to Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, a seven-term MLA, while fielding Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary in a direct election after over a decade.

Health and law minister Mangal Pandey, a member of the legislative council, has also been fielded by the party for the assembly polls.

It was not immediately known how many JD(U) candidates were given tickets during the day, as the CM's residence kept bustling with activity, with aspirants turning up after receiving a call from the party chief.

However, prominent among those who did are minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, state JD(U) president Umesh Singh Kushwaha (Mahnar) and gangster-turned-politician Anant Kumar Singh (Mokama). Many of them also filed their nomination papers.

There was some drama, too, as Gopalpur MLA Gopal Mandal, who is said to have angered Kumar by remaining in the news for all the wrong reasons, turned up at the CM's residence without seeking an appointment. When security personnel tried to prevent him from entering the restricted area, he sat on a dharna, only to be bundled away into a police vehicle hours later.

Mandal's constituency falls in the Bhagalpur district, where he is also known to have a running feud with local JD(U) MP Ajay Mandal, who sought to resign from the party around the same time, alleging that tickets were being given in his area without heeding to his advice.

In the meantime, rumours spread like wildfire that Kumar, who is known to dump allies and forge new coalitions at will, was angry that his party was not given the lion's share in the deal struck at Delhi on Sunday.

Leaders in his own party as well as alliance partners were on their feet, trying their best to assert that all was well, lest the situation might be taken advantage of by their adversaries.

"The opposition is staring at a defeat. It is therefore spreading rumours of a rift in the NDA. Actually, it is the INDIA bloc which is on the brink of collapse," alleged JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, who was present in the national capital while the negotiations were on.

Reports in a section of the media also claimed that Jha, a former BJP man, had received a tongue-lashing from Kumar.

On cue, several NDA leaders from the state, including Union minister Chirag Paswan, a former bete noire of the JD(U) president who was away in Chandigarh, came out with social media posts asserting that the NDA was united under the leadership of the longest-serving CM.

Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, the only NDA partner to have gone public with his displeasure over getting only six seats, also asserted on social media that his own displeasure over a less-than-desired share must not result in the alliance coming apart.

Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has got 29 seats, despite not having a single MLA, while Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha, whose Rashtriya Lok Morcha is just two years old, has got as many seats as Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

Manjhi also announced candidates for all the seats, four of them sitting MLAs, including his daughter-in-law Deepa Manjhi and her mother Jyoti Devi.

Kumar is also reportedly unhappy over a couple of JD(U)'s seats having been acceded to Paswan's party. It was, however, not known which of the seats Paswan's party was contesting this time.

Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc leaders took the opportunity to predict doom for the NDA, even though the situation was no better in their camp.

RJD president Lalu Prasad, who had on Monday night started giving away party tickets by calling candidates to his home, stopped when his son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav reportedly insisted that it should take place in a more "disciplined" manner.

The candidates were reportedly asked to return their tickets because of "technical issues", though enthusiastic ones like Sunil Singh, who last week quit the JD(U) to join the RJD, went ahead and filed their nomination papers.

Though neither partner is admitting to a rift, speculations of discord between RJD and Congress, the two biggest constituents of the INDIA bloc in Bihar, have been doing the rounds.

Poetic social media exchanges between RJD national spokesman Manoj Kumar Jha and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Imran Pratapgarhi have added grist to the mill.

Meanwhile, some of the smaller allies seem to have decided they have had enough. Six candidates of the CPI(ML) Liberation, which has the largest footprint among all Left parties in the state, filed their nomination papers.

Filing of nomination papers for the first phase will be over on October 17, while it will continue till October 20 for the second and final leg.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.