New Delhi: As around 3.75 crore voters exercised their franchise in the first phase of assembly, polling is being done in as many as 18 out of the total 38 districts of Bihar. Following are the details of key electoral battles taking place in Bihar’s Tirhut, and Darbhanga division
The Tirhut administrative division of Bihar consist of Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, West Champaran and East Champaran districts. Under the first phase of assembly polls polling is being done in Muzaffarpur, and Vaishali districts. Here are the key assembly seats.
Muzaffarpur: – In the Muzaffarpur assembly constituency, the electoral battle lies between candidates of the NDA alliance, Mahagathbandhan and others.
Here the NDA candidate is Ranjan Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who is up against Mahagathbandhan candidate Bijendra Chaudhary of the Indian National Congress (INC).
Other than the two alliances, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have also fielded their candidates. The Jan Suraj Party’s (JSP) has handed over ticket to Dr, Amit Kumar Das.
The seat was last won by INC’s Bijendra Chaudhary who had defeated BJP’s Suresh Kumar Mishra by a margin of more than 6000 votes in 2020 assembly polls.
Sahebganj: – In the Sahebganj constituency of Muzaffarpur district, the Mahagathbandhan has fielded Prithvinath Rai against NDA’s Raju Kumar Singh with others also joining the fray.
Singh, a minister in the Bihar government had won the Sahibganj seat in the 2020 assembly polls. He later joined the BJP.
Raghopur: – One of the key assembly constituencies in the ongoing state assembly polls, the Raghopur seat of Vaishali is witnessing an electoral between leader of Opposition in Bihar and sitting MLA, Tejashwi Yadav of RJD, Satish Kumar Yadav of BJP and Chanchal Kumar of the JSP.
The seat, considered as a bastion of RJD was last won by Tejashwi Yadav who had defeated Satish Kumar by a margin of more than 38k votes.
Mahua: – Mahuwa is another constituency which has gained attention right since the seat-sharing arrangements talks between the two major alliances. The assembly seat this time is being contested by former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav, who had floated his new party Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD) in the assembly elections.
The Mahagathbandhan on the other hand has fielded the incumbent MLA Mukesh Kumar Raushan of the RJD with NDA handing over ticket to Sanjay Kumar of Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas)- LJP (R).
The seat was last won by the incumbent MLA Mukesh Kumar Raushan who had become victorious after defeating Janata Dal United – (JDU) candidate in the 2020 assembly polls.
Darbhanga Division
The Darbhanga division of Bihar consists of Madhubani, Darbhnaga and Samastipur districts. Voting for the assembly polls are being done in Darbhanga district while the rest of the two districts will hold polls on November 11.
Jale: – In Jale constituency of Darbhanga, the electoral contest lies between NDA’s incumbent MLA and minister Jibesh Kumar Mishra and Mahaathbandhan’s candidate Rishi Mishra of the INC.
The seat is also contested by Assauddin Owaisi led AIMIM which has fielded Faisal Rehman and BSP’s Rohit Kumar. In the 2020 assembly polls, BJP’s candidate Jibesh Mishra had defeated INC’s Maskoor Usmani by a margin of more than 20000 votes.
Alinagar: – The Alinagar assembly constituency of Darbhanga this time is witnessing an electoral battle between folk singer Maithali Thakur who joined the BJP ahead of the assembly polls, and Binod Mishra of the RJD.
The JSP has also fielded its candidate from the seat by giving ticket to Viplaw Chaudhary. The seat is also contested by AAP and others.
BJP’s candidate Mishri Lal Yadav had come out victorious on the seat in the 2020 assembly polls by defeating the RJD’s candidate Binod Mishra by a close margin of over 3000 votes.
Gaurabauram: – The Gaurabauram assembly constituency of Darbhanga is witnessing an intense contest this time with RJD, BJP, BSP and JSP fielding their candidates.
The seat was also contested by the Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) who was allotted the seat during the seat-sharing arrangement in Mahagathbandhan. The VIP’s candidate Santosh Sahni however reportedly chose not to contest the seat in the dying hours before the polls.
The BJP has fielded Sujit Kumar Singh from the seat who will be up against RJD’s Afzal Ali Khan. Other than these candidates the AIMIM and JSP have also fielded candidates from the seat.
Voting is being done on 121 assembly constituencies of Bihar under the first phase. The second phase of the assembly elections will witness polling on remaining 122 seats. The results for the 243 state assembly seats will be announced on November 14.
In Bihar elections, the NDA led by the BJP and JDU is up against the RJD and Congress led Mahagathbandhan with JJD, JSP, AIMIM and Pashupati Paras led RLJP also in the fray.
