 "RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav waves to the gathering during a rally ahead of the Assembly elections, at Maner in Patna. He's leading from the Raghopur seat, a bastion of the Yadav family. File image/PTI")
The counting of the votes is ongoing in Bihar and the candidates in the fray are waiting with bated breath for the results. Early trends have swung in favour of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), comprising of major players — the BJP as well as the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) — as the exit polls had predicted earlier.
Meanwhile the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD and its alliance, the Mahagathbandhan, and Prashant Kishor’s new outfit, the Jan Suraaj party, remain hopeful of a result in their favour.
Catch live updates from the Bihar Assembly election results here
But as counting continues for the state of Bihar, how are the heavyweights faring in the contest?
Tejashwi Yadav
The chief ministerial candidate of the opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, is shockingly trailing from his family stronghold, Raghopur, in early trends.
Raghopur is the Yadav family bastion. Tejashwi’s father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, as well as mother, Rabri Devi, have held the seat in the past. Tejashwi has been representing the seat since 2015. In the 2020 polls, he won the seat by a margin of over 38,000 votes.
Pitted against the RJD chief is BJP’s Satish Kumar Yadav — he had defeated Rabri Devi in the 2010 election as a JDU candidate.
Maithili Thakur
The singer-turned-politician is hitting the high notes in politics too, reveal early trends. Contesting on a BJP ticket, the young singer is leading in the Alinagar Assembly seat. The BJP fielded her just two days after she joined the party, replacing sitting MLA Mishri Lal Yadav, who was denied a ticket following legal troubles.
Earlier, Thakur was quoted as saying that contesting the elections was the “best decision” of her life. “I think this was the best decision of my life. And the way I have learnt in these 30 days by living among the people, I could not have learnt this from any book or any other source, and this one month has changed my entire life,” Thakur told NDTV.
Tej Pratap Yadav
Tej Pratap Yadav, who is the elder son of RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav, is trailing in the Bihar Assembly elections from the Mahua seat. Expelled from his family’s party, Tej Pratap is contesting the polls this time around from his own outfit, named the Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD).
However, the political gods aren’t smiling down on him; he’s trailing against Sanjay Kumar Singh from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
Notably, Tej Pratap is seeking to reclaim the seat that he won in 2015.
Tarkishore Prasad
In the Katihar seat, BJP’s Tarkishore Prasad has taken the lead. The former Bihar deputy chief minister Tarkishore Prasad has a winning record from the seat for the past 20 years, winning four consecutive elections. In 2020, he defeated his RJD rival by over 10,000 votes.
Anant Kumar Singh
JDU’s Anant Kumar Singh has taken an early lead in the Mokama seat. Initial trends show him ahead of RJD candidate Veena Devi. Also known as ‘Chhote Sarkar, Singh has a strong grip over Mokama, despite facing multiple criminal cases and even serving jail time. Mokama is a politically sensitive seat with a history of high-profile battles.
Samrat Choudhary
Deputy Chief Minister and BJP candidate Samrat Choudhary is leading from the Tarapur constituency. Choudhary, a seasoned politician, is leading against Arun Shah of the RJD and Santosh Singh of the Jan Suraaj Party in the seat.
The Tarapur seat was won by Rajeev Kumar Singh of the JDU. It went to the BJP under the seat-sharing plan of the NDA.
A former RJD leader, Choudhary is the son of veteran politician Shakuni Choudhary. He had defected to the BJP in 2014 along with over a dozen MLAs, engineering a split in the Lalu Yadav-led party.
Shreyasi Singh
In the Jamui seat, BJP’s Shreyasi Singh, the sitting MLA, is leading. In 2020, Singh secured a decisive victory in the Assembly elections, defeating RJD’s Vijay Prakash Yadav by a margin of 41,049 votes.
A champion shooter who won a gold medal in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and a silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Shreyasi Singh is eyeing a second term from Jamui.
With inputs from agencies