Bihar elections phase 1: 121 seats at stake; key constituencies, top candidates | India News – The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Polling for the primary phase of the Bihar Assembly elections 2025 started on Thursday morning throughout 121 constituencies in 18 districts, with over 3.75 crore eligible voters set to solid their ballots. Voting began at 7 am and can proceed until 6 pm, although polling time has been curtailed to five pm in some constituencies as a result of safety issues.This phase will resolve the political destiny of a number of distinguished leaders, together with RJD’s Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, BJP’s Samrat Choudhary and Mangal Pandey, and JD(U)’s Shravan Kumar and Vijay Kumar Choudhary. Tej Pratap Yadav can be contesting on this spherical.

According to the Election Commission, there are 10.72 lakh new voters, together with 7.78 lakh within the 18–19 age group, throughout constituencies with a mixed inhabitants of 6.60 crore. Presiding officers handed over Electronic Voting Machines to polling brokers forward of voting day.Tejashwi Yadav, Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial candidate, is contesting from Raghopur, a seat he has held since 2015. He faces BJP’s Satish Kumar Yadav, who misplaced in 2020. His brother, Tej Pratap Yadav, who shaped the Janshakti Janta Dal after quitting RJD, has fielded Prem Kumar from Raghopur whereas contesting himself from Mahua. The Jan Suraaj Party, led by Prashant Kishor, has fielded Chanchal Singh, making Raghopur a 3-cornered contest.

In Munger’s Tarapur seat, Deputy chief minister and BJP chief Samrat Choudhary faces RJD’s Arun Kumar and Jan Suraaj’s Santosh Kumar Singh. Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha is contesting from Lakhisarai towards Congress’ Amaresh Kumar and Jan Suraaj’s Suraj Kumar.The Mokama constituency, which has been within the information following the homicide of Dularchand Yadav, will see JD(U) candidate Anant Kumar Singh — arrested in reference to the case — face Veena Devi, spouse of former MP Surajbhan Singh.In Patna Sahib, historically a BJP stronghold, the competition is between BJP’s Ratnesh Kumar, also referred to as Ratnesh Khushwaha, and Congress’ Shashant Shekhar.Darbhanga has drawn consideration with BJP fielding 25-yr-previous people singer Maithili Thakur towards RJD’s Binod Mishra. Thakur, the youngest candidate within the fray, may develop into Bihar’s youngest MLA if elected.Overall, 122 ladies candidates are contesting on this phase. The Jan Suraaj Party has fielded 119 candidates. Within the NDA, JD(U) is contesting 57 seats, BJP 48, and LJP (Ram Vilas) 14. Among Mahagathbandhan companions, RJD is contesting 73 seats, Congress 24, and CPI(ML) 14, with pleasant contests on a number of seats.In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, polling was held in three phases. The NDA gained 125 seats whereas the Mahagathbandhan secured 110. JD(U) bagged 43 seats, BJP 74, RJD 75, and Congress 19.

It briefly held the promise of a lip-smacking contest after Prashant Kishor teased a possible matchup with Tejashwi earlier than lastly opting out. But this Lalu Prasad household bastion stays amongst Bihar’s most-watched seats as Tejashwi eyes a hattrick this time. Lalu’s son, the opposition alliance’s CM face, is the towering determine on this seat in (*121*) (Hajipur) district dominated by Yadavs. But the tag of a status seat didn’t translate into vital improvement for Raghopur. Its lengthy-awaited all-climate hyperlink with Patna grew to become a actuality solely this June, when CM Nitish Kumar opened the six-lane Kacchi Dargah-Bidupur bridge, half of an extended (*121*)-Patna street. With no PK within the image right here, Tejashwi’s principal opponent is the person he defeated in 2015 and 2020, Satish Kumar. Now in BJP, he had gained this seat for JDU in 2010, by defeating Tejashwi’s mom and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi.

A political greenhorn takes on a contender who’s chasing redemption on this seat in Darbhanga district. But if Maithili Thakur can financial institution on her celeb standing as a singer and web sensation in her maiden ballot contest for BJP, Binod Mishra (63) of RJD can be hoping the mathematics works in his favour this time since Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), the celebration towards which he had misplaced right here in 2020, is now a Mahagathbandhan companion. Brahmins at 25% and Muslims with one other 23% make up vital voting blocs on this seat in Mithila area, which Thakur has promised to rename if she wins. Her alleged present of disrespect to Mithila’s cultural image, the ‘pag’ or cap, sparked an issue. She has additionally been labelled an outsider, however can be seeking to construct on Union house minister Amit Shah’s attraction of ‘prachand bahumat’ for her, calling her a ‘daughter of Mithila’.

Bhojpuri star Khesari Lal Yadav — his actual identify is Shatrughan Yadav — has been grabbing eyeballs on his ballot debut, although BJP’s Chhoti Kumari can be fancying her possibilities within the seat that her celebration has gained 3 times operating since 2010 with the exception of a byelection in 2014, when RJD prevailed. Saran district, of which Chhapra is part, has thrown up each nationwide and Bhojpuri icons like Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) and Bhikhari Thakur, who’s referred to as the ‘Shakespeare of Bhojpuri language’. Khesari has whipped up the marketing campaign fever with de facto RJD boss Tejashwi Yadav and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav holding rallies for him, however BJP’s personal brigade of Bhojpuri stars — Ravi Kishen and Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ — have weighed in to try to blunt his attraction.

This seat has not gone BJP’s means in just one election since 2005 and the celebration has nominated the incumbent Jha to bag it once more. He faces two new entrants — ballot strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party and Indian Inclusive Party, whose founder Indrajeet Prasad Gupta is the challenger right here. A large rally held by Gupta that includes his supporters from the Pan and Tanti caste teams at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan is alleged to have drawn Mahagathbandhan CM face Tejashwi Yadav’s consideration and led to IIP’s induction into the Mahagathbandhan. But there are not any simple guesses as to the end result right here: if Jha polled greater than a lakh votes in his profitable bid in 2020, he’d additionally seen the rival RJD safe a equally resounding mandate in 2015, when he had been on the shedding aspect.

If the Lok Sabha seat of the identical identify is related to Yadav heavyweights like RJD founder Lalu Prasad and JDU’s Sharad Yadav, the meeting constituency has the file of by no means having gone with candidates of every other neighborhood. For challenger Saha, it’s a 3-pronged activity: develop into the primary non-Yadav and lady to win the seat and discover a solution to deny Chandra Shekhar a fourth straight victory. Underlining the importance of this district, CM Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav have each campaigned for his or her celebration candidates. Yadavs make up round 32% of the inhabitants, and Muslims round 11% with SC neighborhood at 17.5%. The remaining 40% belong to the extraordinarily backward caste (EBC) and ‘Pachpania’ teams, which have stayed closely tilted in Nitish’s favour.

Tarapur

This seat in Munger district made information when CM Nitish Kumar handed it to deputy CM and BJP chief Samrat Choudhary regardless of JDU having gained it since 2010. He might have pitched the saffron camp’s most effectively-identified face in Bihar in a socialist bastion, however the transfer revives a household hyperlink for Choudhary, whose father Shakuni Choudhary has represented Tarapur thrice whereas his mom Parvati, too, had gained it in a 1998 bypoll. Choudhary takes on RJD’s Arun Kumar Sah on this agrarian constituency that has by no means elected a BJP MLA. Tarapur’s historical past is of radical opposites. Its pure magnificence impressed poet Henry Derozio and painter Nandalal Bose, who was born close by. During the 1930 Civil Disobedience motion, police firing killed 32 protesters right here and later, in 1946, Tarapur witnessed ‘Partition riots’.

Paid

Mokama has been tense following the current killing of RJD supporter Dularchand Yadav throughout campaigning, allegedly by associates of JDU candidate and strongman Anant Singh, resulting in Singh’s arrest. That’s seen as having put NDA, which has been focusing on the opposition with reminders of Lalu Prasad’s ‘jungle raj’, on the again foot right here. On the japanese edge of Patna district, Mokama has been on the windward aspect of improvement — it’s linked to north Bihar and Howrah via Rajendra Setu, the state’s first rail-cum-street bridge, and hosts an NTPC plant whereas a 4-lane street bridge was inaugurated by PM Modi not too long ago. Singh’s household dominates the seat — his spouse and brother Dilip have held this seat whereas Singh himself has gained it 5 occasions, together with in 2020, however from the RJD camp. He has now switched sides.

Siwan

Former Bihar meeting speaker, RJD’s Choudhary is a six-time MLA from this seat, whereas BJP and its earlier avatar Jana Sangh, too, have had run right here. Siwan district’s nationwide recall is available in equal measure for being the birthplace of India’s first President Babu Rajendra Prasad and being the turf of the late Mohd Shahabuddin, strongman and native MP. Under Shahabuddin, Siwan was seen as an RJD bastion, and Choudhary can be hoping to capitalise on previous loyalties. Facing him is BJP MLC and Bihar well being and household welfare minister Pandey, who’s making his ballot debut. The presence of Kafi Shamshir of AIMIM and Intekhan Ahmad of Jan Suraaj Party makes the competition on this seat that has a sizeable presence of Muslim voters a tough one to name.