After the poll bugle was sounded in Bihar, thousands of people were queuing up daily in front of the houses of top leaders and party offices to contest the elections to the 243-member Bihar assembly.
Most of them have submitted their colourful biodata to different political parties to contest the five-phased elections starting from October 12.
Long queue were seen outside the official bungalows of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi in high security zone here and party offices of RJD, JD-U, BJP on the busy Birchand Patel Marg here.
The maximum number people seems to be interested in the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), Hindustan Awami Morcha (HAM) and grand alliance of Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress.
There were no queue or thin crowd outside offices of parties like NCP, Samajwadi Party, BSP, Pappu Yadav's Jan Adhikant and left parties.
"Every day over 150 of ticket aspirants have been submitting their well-designed colourful biodata and are eagerly awaiting the final lists of candidates. Till date we have received thousands of such applications," RJD office secretary Chandeshwar Prasad Singh told IANS.
BJP legislator and spokesperson Sanjay Mayunkh said hundreds of aspirants along with their supporters in the four wheelers visiting party office daily.
"We are seeing such a rush for the first time because the BJP-led NDA has emerged as a clear winner in the polls," he said.
"Till the last assembly polls in 2010, hardly a few hundred ticket aspirants were there. This time, a record was made when thousands of applications were submitted," Mayunkh said.
According to officials of parties, more than 7,000 aspirants have already submitted their particulars to the ruling JD-U and nearly 8,000 to its ally RJD and nearly 3,000 to Congress.
But the opposition BJP topped the list with over 10,000 aspirants and its alliance partners LJP by 4,000, 3,000 for RLSP and nearly 2,000 for HAM.
Samajwadi Party state unit president Ram Chander Singh said more than 2,000 aspirants have submitted bio data to contest polls. The SP has announced to contest from all 243 assembly seats.
JD-U leader Chotu Singh said: "I submitted a biodata with other documents to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and requested him to consider my application for the party ticket. I am hopeful as it has everything for a potential candidate."
RJD leader Harishchandra Prasad Yadav from Aurai in Muzaffarpur also submitted a voluminous bio-data of 300 pages to the party office. He is sure to to impress party Lalu for the ticket.
Nitish Kumar and former chief minister Lalu Prasad, who joined hands to defeat the BJP, spent hours at their bungalows to meet aspirants for the past one week.
"All aspirants want to meet Nitish and Lalu, but it is not possible," a grand alliance leader said.
JD-U state unit president Vashsisht Narain Singh said his party was trying hard to shortlist potential candidates in view of the large number of aspirants. "Party leaders are busy scrutinising biodata," he said.
The party is expected to release its first list of candidates before September 16 when nomination for the first phase of election will start.
BJP leaders also admitted that due to the large number of aspirants, there was pressure on the party to scrutinise all bio data before finalising the candidates.
"It is a big challenge," BJP state unit president Mangal Pandey said.
The JD-U and the RJD are contesting 100 seats each and their allies the Congress 40 and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha may contest 3 seats.
The BJP will contest in 160 seats and its allies Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP in 40, Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP in 23 and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM in 20.
