Fate of CM candidates to be sealed
NEW DELHI: The electoral fate of 1,314 candidates, including top leaders such as Tejashwi Yadav, the I.N.D.I.A. bloc’s chief ministerial face, and incumbent deputy chief ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha of the BJP, will be sealed in the crucial first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections on Thursday.
Voting will take place in 121 constituencies, nearly half of the 243-member legislature, across 18 districts in the politically significant eastern state.
Tejashwi Yadav, seeking a hat-trick from Raghopur, faces BJP’s Satish Kumar, who had defeated his mother Rabri Devi in 2010 as a JD(U) candidate. In nearby Mahua, Tejashwi’s estranged brother Tej Pratap Yadav, who recently floated his own party, the Janshakti Janata Dal, is contesting a multi-cornered battle to reclaim the seat from sitting RJD MLA Mukesh Raushan. The LJP (Ram Vilas) candidate Sanjay Singh and Independent Ashma Parveen, runner-up in 2020, have turned Mahua into a fierce contest.
Several ministers in the Nitish Kumar government, including Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, are also in the fray. Sinha seeks a fourth straight win from Lakhisarai, facing Amresh Kumar of the Congress and Suraj Kumar of the Jan Suraaj Party.
Choudhary, contesting a direct election after nearly a decade from Tarapur, faces a stiff challenge from RJD’s Arun Kumar Sah, who lost the seat in 2020 by about 5,000 votes.
BJP minister Mangal Pandey, contesting from Siwan, faces RJD’s Awadh Bihari Chaudhary, a former Assembly Speaker and multiple-term MLA. In neighbouring Raghunathpur, Osama Shahab, son of late gangster-turned-politician Mohd Shahabuddin, is contesting as an RJD candidate, drawing sharp criticism from the NDA, which accuses the RJD of bringing back “jungle raj.”
Other notable candidates include folk singer Maithili Thakur (BJP–Aliganj), and Bhojpuri actors Khesari Lal Yadav (RJD–Chhapra) and Ritesh Pandey (Jan Suraaj–Kargahar).
Nearly a dozen ministers, mostly from the BJP, are contesting, including Nitin Nabin (Bankipur), Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga), Jibesh Kumar (Jale), and Kedar Prasad Gupta (Kurhani). From the JD(U), ministers Shrawan Kumar (Nalanda) and Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (Sarairanjan) are in the fray.
A key constituency to watch is Mokama, where JD(U)’s Anant Singh, currently in jail over the killing of a Jan Suraaj Party supporter, faces RJD’s Veena Devi, wife of former MP Suraj Bhan, himself a former gangster.
According to the Election Commission, Digha in Patna has the highest number of voters (4.58 lakh), while Barbigha in Sheikhpura district has the lowest (2.32 lakh). Kurhani and Muzaffarpur have the most candidates (20 each), while Bhorey, Alauli, and Parbatta have only five each.
Polling will be held at 45,341 booths, of which 36,733 are in rural areas. Of the 3.75 crore voters, 10.72 lakh are new electors, including 7.38 lakh in the 18-19 age group.
