Campaigning ends for Bihar Election 2025 Phase 1. Voters in 121 constituencies to vote on Nov 6 amid key contests featuring top leaders.
The BJP has fielded folk singer Maithili Thakur in the RJD stronghold of Alinagar.
The campaign for the first phase of polling in the Bihar Election 2025 came to an end Tuesday evening as the voters are gearing up to use their franchise on November 6. Voters of 121 constituencies, spread across 18 districts, will vote in the first phase. Polling for the remaining 122 seats will be held in the second phase on November 11. The people of Bihar witnessed the high-octane drama as the battlefield was clearly marked with the ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) on one side and the Mahagathbandhan alliance, which includes the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), and Left parties CPI, CPI-ML, and CPI(M) on the other.
The first phase of the election campaign was marked by acute shrillness, cacophony, and mudslinging by all sides with a no-holds-barred approach. Now all eyes are set on some of the most important leaders, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, his brother Tej Pratap Yadav of Janshakti Janata Dal, Deputy Chief Minister and BJP’s Samrat Choudhary, and the party’s cultural pick, Maithili Thakur.
(Samrat Chaudhary, Deputy Chief Minister, Bihar)
Tarapur
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that he would make Samrat Chaudhary a “bada aadmi” if he gets elected, people in Tarapur view him as the next chief minister. However, things are not as easy as they appear. The outgoing deputy chief minister is caught in a tight contest. The largest group of voters comprises the Yadavs, who number around 63,000, with about 20,000 Muslims, 50,000 upper castes (Rajputs and Brahmins), 40,000 Kushwahas, 35,000 Sahs, and 28,000 Dalits. He is pitted against RJD’s Arun Shah, who had contested from Tarapur in a 2021 bypoll and lost by a slender margin of just over 3,800 votes to the JD(U)’s Rajiv Kumar Singh.
Lakhisarai
Bihar’s other deputy chief minister, too, is caught in a vulnerable position. Vijay Kumar Sinha is contesting against JSP’s Suraj Kumar. He has been fielded for the sixth term from Lakhisarai, the constituency that has been returned to the BJP’s candidate stronghold in three consecutive Assembly polls—2010, 2015, and 2020. Caste is the most important factor as it is dominated by Bhumihar and other upper-caste voters.
Alinagar
BJP’s cultural pick, folk singer Maithili Thakur, has been fielded against RJD’s Binod Mishra and JSP’s Biplaw Kumar Chowdhary from Alinagar in Darbhanga district. Detractors have dubbed her an “outsider,” as she is from the Uren village of Benipatti and has been living in Delhi since her childhood. The saffron party wants to exploit her popularity and has fielded her to counter the influence of RJD’s veteran Abdul Bari Siddiqui, who won seven times before bowing out after his 2015 victory. VIP’s Mishri Lal Yadav, another RJD old-timer who had switched to the NDA, won it in 2020 by a margin of just over 3,000 votes.
Arrah
CPI (ML)’s Quyamuddin Ansari is up against BJP’s Sanjay Singh ‘Tiger’ in Arrah. He finished as runner-up against BJP’ Amrendra Pratap Singh in 2010 and 2020. In the 2015 bypoll, RJD candidate Mohammad Nawaz Alam secured victory.
(Nand Kishore Yadav did not get ticket.)
Patna Sahib
The saffron party has replaced one of its longest-serving legislators, Nand Kishore Yadav, 72, with a new face—Ratnesh Kushwaha, a 45-year-old lawyer in Patna Sahib. The Opposition Congress has fielded debutant Shashant Shekhar against him in the urban constituency. Yadav defeated the Congress’s Pravin Singh Kushwaha by 18,300 votes in 2020. It will be a much-sought-after opportunity for Congress to reclaim the lost ground in a city where it has been absent for decades.
