The stage is set for the crucial first phase of the assembly elections in Bihar on Thursday, as 3.75 crore voters will decide the electoral fate of 1,314 candidates, including top leaders such as INDIA bloc's chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary of the BJP.
Yadav aims at a hat-trick in Raghopur, while his principal challenger Satish Kumar of the BJP had defeated his mother Rabri Devi in 2010 while contesting on a JD(U) symbol.
The seat was expected to witness a high-voltage contest, with Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor declaring that he wanted to take on Yadav on his home turf.
However, Kishor decided not to contest, and his party gave a ticket to a less fancied candidate Chanchal Singh.
In adjoining Mahua, Yadav’s estranged elder brother Tej Pratap, who has floated his own outfit Janshakti Janata Dal, is locked in a multi-cornered contest.
The elder son of RJD president Lalu Prasad seeks to wrest the seat from sitting RJD MLA Mukesh Raushan, though the presence of Sanjay Singh, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate who represents the NDA, and Independent Ashma Parveen, the runner-up of 2020, has queered the pitch.
Several ministers in the Nitish Kumar government, including Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, will also have their electoral fates decided in the first phase of polls.
Top battles to watch out:
Samrat Choudhary (BJP) vs Arun Shah (RJD)
In Tarapur constituency, BJP leader and state deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary is locking horns with RJD’s Arun Shah in what promises to be a closely fought contest. The constituency has a diverse voter base dominated by around 63,000 Yadavs, followed by 50,000 upper-caste voters (Rajputs and Brahmins), 40,000 Kushwahas, 35,000 Sahs, 28,000 Dalits, and about 20,000 Muslims.
Choudhary, a sitting MLC, is returning to the electoral fray after 15 years, while Shah—who had contested the 2021 bypoll from the same seat—had narrowly lost to JD(U)’s Rajiv Kumar Singh by a margin of just over 3,800 votes.
Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) vs Satish Kumar (BJP)
RJD leader and Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav is gearing up for a high-stakes contest from the Raghopur Assembly seat, where he faces BJP’s Satish Kumar of the NDA and Jan Suraaj Party’s Chanchal Kumar.
A Yadav stronghold, Raghopur has largely remained loyal to the RJD’s first family since Lalu Prasad’s win in 1995, barring the 2010–2015 term when the JD(U) held the seat. The constituency has since twice elected Tejashwi Yadav, who is now eyeing a third consecutive victory.
Tej Pratap Yadav (JJD) vs Mukesh Raushan (RJD)
Independent MLA and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav, Lalu Prasad’s estranged son, is set to contest from the Mahua constituency in Vaishali district in the first phase of the Bihar polls. He will be up against RJD’s sitting MLA Mukesh Kumar Raushan and LJP’s Sanjay Singh.
Tej Pratap, who was expelled from the RJD in May this year for “irresponsible behaviour” and straying from the party’s core values, went on to launch his own outfit, the JJD (Jan Jagrukta Dal). His expulsion came soon after a controversial, now-deleted Facebook post where he claimed to have been in a 12-year relationship.
Having earlier won the Mahua seat in 2015, Tej Pratap is now trying to reclaim his political turf under the JJD banner, which is supported by five regional allies – the Vikas Vanchit Insaan Party (VVIP), Bhojpuria Jan Morcha (BJM), Pragatisheel Janata Party (PJP), Wazib Adhikar Party (WAP), and the Sanyukt Kisan Vikas Party.
Maithili Thakur (BJP) vs Binod Mishra (RJD)
Folk singer and BJP’s cultural face Maithili Thakur is making her electoral debut from the Alinagar constituency in Darbhanga district, where she will take on RJD’s Binod Mishra and JSP’s Biplaw Kumar Chowdhary in the first phase of the Bihar polls.
By fielding the 25-year-old, the BJP is seeking to tap into Mithila’s deep-rooted cultural pride and turn it into political strength. Thakur had joined the party in October, when the BJP announced its first list of 71 candidates for the Assembly elections.
Alinagar has been an RJD stronghold for decades under veteran Abdul Bari Siddiqui, who won the seat seven times before stepping aside after his 2015 victory. In 2020, the constituency was won by VIP’s Mishri Lal Yadav — a former RJD leader who joined the NDA — by a narrow margin of just over 3,000 votes.
About a dozen ministers, most of them from the BJP, which has the lion’s share in the cabinet by virtue of its superior strength in the assembly, are in the fray.
They are Nitin Nabin (Bankipur), Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga), Jibesh Kumar (Jale) and Kedar Prasad Gupta (Kurhani), all of whom will be defending their seats.
Ministers, belonging to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), whose fate will be decided in the first phase, include Shrawan Kumar (Nalanda) and Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (Sarairanjan).
One of the most keenly watched contests will be in Mokama, where JD(U)’s Anant Singh, who is in jail in connection with the killing of a Jan Suraaj Party supporter during the election campaign, is locked in a straight battle with RJD’s Veena Devi, married to Suraj Bhan, a gangster.
According to the Election Commission, of the 121 seats which go to polls, Digha, which represents the western part of the state capital, has the maximum number of about 4.58 lakh voters, while Barbigha in Sheikhpura district has the lowest of 2.32 lakh voters.
Kurhani and Muzaffarpur have the largest number of 20 candidates each in the fray, while the reserved constituencies of Bhorey and Alauli, besides Parbatta, have five candidates each.
Voting will take place at 45,341 polling stations, an overwhelming majority of which (36,733) fall in rural areas.
According to the Election Commission, of the 3.75 crore voters in the 121 constituencies, 10.72 lakh were “new electors”.
The number of voters in the age group of 18-19 years, though, was 7.38 lakh.
Total population of these constituencies, as stated by the Election Commission, was 6.60 crore, indicating that nearly three crore people were not in the voters' list, because of being underage or other unspecified reasons.
The assembly elections are being carried out soon after the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which now has 7.24 crore voters across the state, about 60 lakh less than the size before the exercise was undertaken.
Yadav aims at a hat-trick in Raghopur, while his principal challenger Satish Kumar of the BJP had defeated his mother Rabri Devi in 2010 while contesting on a JD(U) symbol.
The seat was expected to witness a high-voltage contest, with Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor declaring that he wanted to take on Yadav on his home turf.
However, Kishor decided not to contest, and his party gave a ticket to a less fancied candidate Chanchal Singh.
In adjoining Mahua, Yadav’s estranged elder brother Tej Pratap, who has floated his own outfit Janshakti Janata Dal, is locked in a multi-cornered contest.
The elder son of RJD president Lalu Prasad seeks to wrest the seat from sitting RJD MLA Mukesh Raushan, though the presence of Sanjay Singh, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate who represents the NDA, and Independent Ashma Parveen, the runner-up of 2020, has queered the pitch.
Several ministers in the Nitish Kumar government, including Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, will also have their electoral fates decided in the first phase of polls.
Top battles to watch out:
Samrat Choudhary (BJP) vs Arun Shah (RJD)
In Tarapur constituency, BJP leader and state deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary is locking horns with RJD’s Arun Shah in what promises to be a closely fought contest. The constituency has a diverse voter base dominated by around 63,000 Yadavs, followed by 50,000 upper-caste voters (Rajputs and Brahmins), 40,000 Kushwahas, 35,000 Sahs, 28,000 Dalits, and about 20,000 Muslims.Choudhary, a sitting MLC, is returning to the electoral fray after 15 years, while Shah—who had contested the 2021 bypoll from the same seat—had narrowly lost to JD(U)’s Rajiv Kumar Singh by a margin of just over 3,800 votes.
Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) vs Satish Kumar (BJP)
RJD leader and Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav is gearing up for a high-stakes contest from the Raghopur Assembly seat, where he faces BJP’s Satish Kumar of the NDA and Jan Suraaj Party’s Chanchal Kumar.A Yadav stronghold, Raghopur has largely remained loyal to the RJD’s first family since Lalu Prasad’s win in 1995, barring the 2010–2015 term when the JD(U) held the seat. The constituency has since twice elected Tejashwi Yadav, who is now eyeing a third consecutive victory.
Tej Pratap Yadav (JJD) vs Mukesh Raushan (RJD)
Independent MLA and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav, Lalu Prasad’s estranged son, is set to contest from the Mahua constituency in Vaishali district in the first phase of the Bihar polls. He will be up against RJD’s sitting MLA Mukesh Kumar Raushan and LJP’s Sanjay Singh.
Tej Pratap, who was expelled from the RJD in May this year for “irresponsible behaviour” and straying from the party’s core values, went on to launch his own outfit, the JJD (Jan Jagrukta Dal). His expulsion came soon after a controversial, now-deleted Facebook post where he claimed to have been in a 12-year relationship.
Having earlier won the Mahua seat in 2015, Tej Pratap is now trying to reclaim his political turf under the JJD banner, which is supported by five regional allies – the Vikas Vanchit Insaan Party (VVIP), Bhojpuria Jan Morcha (BJM), Pragatisheel Janata Party (PJP), Wazib Adhikar Party (WAP), and the Sanyukt Kisan Vikas Party.
Maithili Thakur (BJP) vs Binod Mishra (RJD)
Folk singer and BJP’s cultural face Maithili Thakur is making her electoral debut from the Alinagar constituency in Darbhanga district, where she will take on RJD’s Binod Mishra and JSP’s Biplaw Kumar Chowdhary in the first phase of the Bihar polls.By fielding the 25-year-old, the BJP is seeking to tap into Mithila’s deep-rooted cultural pride and turn it into political strength. Thakur had joined the party in October, when the BJP announced its first list of 71 candidates for the Assembly elections.
Alinagar has been an RJD stronghold for decades under veteran Abdul Bari Siddiqui, who won the seat seven times before stepping aside after his 2015 victory. In 2020, the constituency was won by VIP’s Mishri Lal Yadav — a former RJD leader who joined the NDA — by a narrow margin of just over 3,000 votes.
About a dozen ministers, most of them from the BJP, which has the lion’s share in the cabinet by virtue of its superior strength in the assembly, are in the fray.
They are Nitin Nabin (Bankipur), Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga), Jibesh Kumar (Jale) and Kedar Prasad Gupta (Kurhani), all of whom will be defending their seats.
Ministers, belonging to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), whose fate will be decided in the first phase, include Shrawan Kumar (Nalanda) and Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (Sarairanjan).
One of the most keenly watched contests will be in Mokama, where JD(U)’s Anant Singh, who is in jail in connection with the killing of a Jan Suraaj Party supporter during the election campaign, is locked in a straight battle with RJD’s Veena Devi, married to Suraj Bhan, a gangster.
According to the Election Commission, of the 121 seats which go to polls, Digha, which represents the western part of the state capital, has the maximum number of about 4.58 lakh voters, while Barbigha in Sheikhpura district has the lowest of 2.32 lakh voters.
Kurhani and Muzaffarpur have the largest number of 20 candidates each in the fray, while the reserved constituencies of Bhorey and Alauli, besides Parbatta, have five candidates each.
Voting will take place at 45,341 polling stations, an overwhelming majority of which (36,733) fall in rural areas.
According to the Election Commission, of the 3.75 crore voters in the 121 constituencies, 10.72 lakh were “new electors”.
The number of voters in the age group of 18-19 years, though, was 7.38 lakh.
Total population of these constituencies, as stated by the Election Commission, was 6.60 crore, indicating that nearly three crore people were not in the voters' list, because of being underage or other unspecified reasons.
The assembly elections are being carried out soon after the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which now has 7.24 crore voters across the state, about 60 lakh less than the size before the exercise was undertaken.
