Mahua: Tej Pratap Yadav (JJD) vs Mukesh Raushan (RJD)

In Vaishali district’s Mahua seat, Lalu Prasad’s estranged son and independent MLA Tej Pratap Yadav will be in the spotlight as he takes on RJD’s Mukesh Kumar Raushan, the sitting MLA, and LJP’s Sanjay Singh.

After being expelled from the RJD in May for what the party called “irresponsible behaviour” and straying from the party’s core values, Tej Pratap formed his own outfit, the JJD. His expulsion followed a controversial social media post, now deleted, where he spoke of a 12-year relationship with a woman.

Tej Pratap had earlier won Mahua in 2015 and is now hoping to reclaim it under the JJD banner. The new party brings together five smaller regional outfits — the Vikas Vanchit Insaan Party, Bhojpuria Jan Morcha, Pragatisheel Janata Party, Wazib Adhikar Party and Sanyukt Kisan Vikas Party — as he attempts to rebuild his political base independently.

Alinagar: Maithili Thakur (BJP) vs Binod Mishra (RJD) vs JSP’s Biplaw Kumar Chowdhary

Folk singer Maithili Thakur, the BJP’s new cultural face, will make her electoral debut from Alinagar in Darbhanga district. She will face RJD’s Binod Mishra and JSP’s Biplaw Kumar Chowdhary in the first phase of polling.

By nominating the 25-year-old singer, the BJP aims to turn Mithila’s cultural pride into political strength. Thakur joined the party in October, soon after the BJP announced its first list of 71 candidates for the Bihar elections.

Alinagar has traditionally been an RJD stronghold, long represented by veteran Abdul Bari Siddiqui, who won seven times before stepping aside after his 2015 victory. In 2020, the seat went to VIP’s Mishri Lal Yadav – a former RJD leader who crossed over to the NDA – by a narrow margin of just over 3,000 votes.

Lakhisarai: Vijay Kumar Sinha (BJP) vs Suraj Kumar (JSP) vs Amresh Kumar Aneesh (INC)

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha is eyeing a sixth straight victory from Lakhisarai, where he will face JSP’s Suraj Kumar in the first phase of polling.

Lakhisarai has been a BJP bastion for the last three Assembly terms – 2010, 2015 and 2020 – largely driven by caste dynamics, with strong support from Bhumihars and other upper-caste groups.

A civil engineer by training and a former RSS worker, Sinha is a prominent Bhumihar leader. He made history in 2020 by becoming the first BJP member to serve as Speaker of the Bihar Assembly after the party formed the government with JD(U).

Arrah: Sanjay Singh “Tiger” (BJP) vs Vijay Kumar Gupta (JSP) vs CPI (ML)’s Quyamuddin Ansari

In Arrah, BJP’s Sanjay Singh “Tiger” will take on JSP’s Vijay Kumar Gupta and CPI (ML)’s Quyamuddin Ansari in what appears to be a three-cornered contest.

The seat has swung between the BJP and RJD in almost every election since 2010. BJP’s Amrendra Pratap Singh won in 2010 and again in 2020, both times with Ansari finishing second. In between, during the 2015 bypoll, the seat briefly returned to the RJD when Mohammad Nawaz Alam won.