Patna, April 13: Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and HAM chief Santosh Manjhi were among the four opposition candidates who filed nomination papers on Friday for the April 26 Bihar council polls.

Rashtriya Janata Dal state president Ram Chander Purve and Khurshid Mohsin are the other two candidates from the Grand Alliance, whose names were announced on Thursday.

The papers were filed in the presence of former Deputy Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav and former Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav -- the sons of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi.

Santosh Manjhi's father, former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, was also present. Rabri Devi told the media that she was happy and looked forward to working for her party and the people of Bihar.

The Grand Alliance comprises of the RJD, Congress and the Hindustani Awam Morcha. The Congress was likely to finalise the name of its candidate by April 14. The ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) was also likely to announce its candidates on Saturday.

Earlier this week, the Election Commission declared the dates for the biennial election to 11 seats of the Bihar Legislative Council which will fall vacant on May 6. The last date for filing nominations is April 16.

The terms of 10 members are ending, while one seat had fallen vacant earlier following the disqualification of senior JD-U leader Narendra Singh on January 6, 2016.

The other prominent members whose terms are to expire are Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, Rabri Devi and Health Minister Mangal Pandey.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 13, 2018 04:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).