Bihar’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) faced a major jolt on Saturday (Oct 18, 2025) after the nomination papers of Lok Janshakti (Ram Vilas) Party candidate Seem Singh were rejected during a scrutiny process at the Marhaura assembly seat ahead of next month’s elections.
Her candidature was rejected due to irregularities found in her documents submitted to the returning officer. He belongs to Union Minister Chirag Paswan’s party, LJP (RV), which has 29 seats under the NDA’s seat-sharing arrangement.
Ms. Singh was among the five candidates whose nomination papers were rejected. The others are The Plurals Party’s Madhubala Giri, Janata Dal (United) rebel Altaf Alam, who is running as an independent, Vishal Kumar, who is also an independent, and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Aditya Kumar.
“Due to a minor mistake this happened, we have approached the ECI and I am sure it will be resolved soon,” Chirag Paswan said on canceling Seema Singh’s Marhaura assembly seat candidature.
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42 year old Mrs. Singh is a famous Bhojpuri actress who has worked in more than 500 Bhojpuri films. She is known for her item numbers, she has also acted in Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Rajasthani films.
After her candidature was rejected, it is now a direct contest in the Marhaura Assembly constituency between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Jitendra Rai and Jana Suraaj Party (JSP) candidate Naveen Kumar Singh alias Abhay Singh. Voting will take place here in the first phase on November 6.
Sitting Gopalpur MLA Gopal Mandal of the JD(U) filed his nomination as an independent after his party decided to sit out this election. At a public meeting after filing his nomination, he broke down in tears and said, “This is a do-or-die fight. Nitish Kumar was misled, due to which my ticket was cancelled. I have never done anything wrong and will never do anything.”
The sitting MLA from Narkatiyaganj, Rashmi Verma, also declared that she will contest the elections as an independent, warning the BJP that the 2015 situation could be repeated in the constituency.
After being denied a ticket by the party in 2015, she contested the elections as an independent and defeated the official BJP candidate Rena Devi. In 2020, BJP fielded her as its candidate and she was elected. However, this time the party again denied her a ticket and fielded Sanjay Kumar Pandey.
Ms. Verma has announced that she will file her nomination on October 20, saying that she will contest the election at the request of the people of her constituency.
Several BJP candidates have also filed their nominations for the second phase of the election. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha attended nomination meetings and appealed to people to vote for NDA candidates.
The BJP candidates who filed their nominations were Sangeeta Kumari from Mohania, Nisha Singh from Pranpur, Sujit Paswan from Rajnagar, Pawan Jaiswal from Dhaka, Ram Singh from Bagaha, Nand Kishore Ram from Ramnagar, Sanjay Pandey from Narkatiaganj, Murinti Paswan and Trivikram Singh of Aurangabad.
Addressing a public meeting after his nomination in Wazirganj, Mr. Patel said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country was moving forward on the path of development.
“The NDA policies focus on the upliftment of the poor, farmers, youth and women. To continue this journey of development and good governance, ensure a landslide victory for the NDA candidates,” Mr Patel said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) also released the names of candidates in all 20 seats allotted to the party under opposition seat-sharing arrangements. Out of the 20, six candidates are from Scheduled Caste (SC) communities. One woman candidate has been nominated for the Digha Assembly seat.
For the 2020 elections, the party has two new seats, Rajgir and Pipra. Up to 10 candidates have repeated, with four being new faces and one candidate being eliminated.
Meanwhile, the JD(U) replaced its candidate Amnour Sab Zafar and fielded former Rajya Sabha MP Sabir Ali, who was expelled from the party 11 years ago for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Published – 18 Oct 2025 20:10 IST
