Patna: Bihar will go to polls in the first phase of its Assembly elections on Thursday, with 3.75 crore voters set to decide the fate of 1,314 candidates across 121 constituencies. The contest features several high-profile leaders, including the INDIA bloc’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). According to the Election Commission, voting will take place at 45,341 polling stations, with 36,733 located in rural areas.
Tejashwi Yadav is seeking a third consecutive victory from Raghopur, a seat that carries symbolic weight for his party. His main rival is BJP’s Satish Kumar, who defeated Yadav’s mother and former chief minister Rabri Devi in 2010 while contesting as a JD(U) candidate. The constituency had initially been expected to see a high-profile challenge from Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who had declared his intention to contest against Yadav, but Kishor later withdrew and fielded Chanchal Singh instead. In nearby Mahua, Tejashwi’s elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, now heading his own outfit Janshakti Janata Dal, is engaged in a multi-cornered contest. He hopes to reclaim the seat from the sitting RJD MLA Mukesh Raushan. However, the presence of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) nominee Sanjay Singh, who represents the NDA, and Independent candidate Ashma Parveen, the runner-up in 2020, has added to the competition. The first phase also includes key electoral battles involving ministers in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s government, including both Deputy Chief Ministers—Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. Sinha is contesting from Lakhisarai, aiming for a fourth consecutive term, and faces Amresh Kumar of the Congress and Suraj Kumar of the Jan Suraaj Party. Choudhary, who has been a member of the legislative council for two consecutive terms, is contesting a direct election after about a decade from Tarapur. His performance is seen as crucial within the BJP, where his stature has grown considerably in recent years. He faces a strong opponent in RJD’s Arun Kumar Sah, who lost the seat in 2020 by around 5,000 votes. Another senior BJP leader and minister, Mangal Pandey, is contesting an Assembly election for the first time from Siwan. A member of the legislative council since 2012 and a former state BJP president, Pandey is up against RJD’s Awadh Bihari Chaudhary, a veteran and several-term MLA who has also served as Speaker of the Assembly. Siwan and its adjoining areas are drawing attention for another reason — the candidature of Osama Shahab, the 31-year-old son of late gangster-turned-politician Mohammad Shahabuddin, who was once regarded as the “uncrowned king” of the region. Osama, contesting from Raghunathpur on an RJD ticket, has become a focal point of political attacks by the NDA, which has accused the RJD of seeking to revive what it calls “jungle raj”. BJP leaders, including Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, have gone so far as to draw comparisons between Osama Shahab’s name and that of slain terrorist Osama bin Laden.
The elections have also attracted several candidates from outside politics. Folk singer Maithili Thakur is contesting from Aliganj on a BJP ticket, while Bhojpuri actors Khesari Lal Yadav and Ritesh Pandey are contesting from Chhapra (RJD) and Kargahar (Jan Suraaj Party) respectively. Among the ministers defending their seats are BJP leaders Nitin Nabin (Bankipur), Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga), Jibesh Kumar (Jale) and Kedar Prasad Gupta (Kurhani). From the JD(U) camp, ministers Shrawan Kumar (Nalanda) and Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (Sarairanjan) are also seeking re-election. One of the most closely watched contests is in Mokama, where JD(U)’s Anant Singh, currently in jail for the alleged killing of a Jan Suraaj Party supporter during the campaign, faces RJD’s Veena Devi. Devi is the wife of former MP Suraj Bhan, who has a criminal background, making the battle between the two a matter of considerable interest.
According to the Election Commission, Digha constituency in Patna district has the highest number of voters, about 4.58 lakh, while Barbigha in Sheikhpura district has the lowest, with 2.32 lakh voters. Kurhani and Muzaffarpur have the maximum number of candidates—20 each—while the reserved constituencies of Bhorey, Alauli, and Parbatta have only five candidates each. The Commission also reported that among the 3.75 crore eligible voters, 10.72 lakh are new electors and 7.38 lakh fall in the 18-19 age group. The total population across these 121 constituencies is 6.60 crore, indicating that nearly three crore people are not part of the voter list due to age or other factors. The Assembly elections come soon after a special intensive revision of electoral rolls, which resulted in Bihar’s total voter count being adjusted to 7.24 crore—around 60 lakh fewer than before the revision. With about a dozen ministers, several celebrity candidates, and politically charged constituencies in the mix, the first phase of polling is expected to set the tone for the remaining rounds. Both the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc are treating this round as a crucial test of their respective strengths in a state where political fortunes have often been unpredictable.