Patna, Jan 24 (IANS): Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United Friday announced the nomination of three new faces in the elections to five Rajya Sabha seats from the state, party president Sharad Yadav said.

Yadav said that JD-U has decided to nominate Ramnath Thakur, Harivansh and Kahkashan Perween as its candidates in the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha to be held Feb 7.

Thakur, a senior JD-U leader, is son of former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, an icon of backward politics in the state.

Harivansh is editor-in-chief of Hindi newspaper Prabhath Khabar while Perween is also a JD-U leader.

"Our party has nominated new faces to empower extreme-backward caste and women," Yadav said in his speech at a function here to mark Karpoori Thakur's birth anniversary.

JD-U did not renominate its three Rajya Sabha MPs -- N.K. Singh, Shivanand Tiwari and Sabir Ali. They have instead been offered an opportunity to contest the Lok Sabha polls.