Bihar To Vote For 94 Seats Today, Here Are The Key Contests

Tejashwi Yadav, the chief ministerial candidate of Mahagathbandhan, is seeking re-election from the Raghopur seat. He had won the seat on his maiden outing in electoral politics in 2015.

All arrangements have been put in place for the second phase of assembly elections. High profile constituencies like Patna, Vaishali, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and Madhubani spread over 17 districts will go to polls in this phase today. The political future of 1,463 candidates will be decided by over 2.85 crore voters. 1,316 men, 146 women and one transgender candidate are there in the fray.

Here are the key seats which will see polling in the second phase of Bihar Assembly Election 2020:

Raghopur

Tejashwi Yadav, the chief ministerial candidate of Mahagathbandhan, is seeking re-election from the Raghopur seat. He had won the seat on his maiden outing in electoral politics in 2015. His main contender is Satish Kumar of the BJP, who had defeated former chief minister and Tejashwi’s mother Rabri Devi from the same seat in the 2010 polls.

Hasanpur

The elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and former Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav is contesting from the Hasanpur seat. Yadav is contesting against two-time sitting MLA Rajkumar Rai of the Janata Dal(United). Tej Pratap has moved out of his constituency Mahua in Vaishali district to Hasanpur in Samastipur.

Bankipur

Actor turned politician Shatrughan Sinha’s son Luv Sinha is contesting on the Bankipur seat from Mahagathbandhan. Incumbent MLA Nitin Nabin is eyeing a third term from the seat and has been the head of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). He’s also been appointed recently as the party’s in charge for Sikkim.

Jhanjharpur

RJD MLA Gulab Yadav and the BJP’s candidate Nitish Mishra are likely to have a tight contest in Jhanjharpur assembly constituency that falls in the Madhubani district. The seat had seen the same contest in 2015. Nitish Mishra is the vice president of the BJP’s Bihar unit and the son of Jagannath Mishra who served as the chief minister three times.

Maner

Nikhil Anand, the state BJP spokesperson and close confidant of Union minister of state Nityanand Rai, is fighting from the Maner assembly seat against two-time sitting MLA of the RJD Bhai Virendra. Shrikant Nirala was fighting on the seat from the BJP since 1990, but Nikhil Anand joined politics after a career in journalism and was chosen over him.

Begusarai

Sitting Congress MLA Amita Bhushan will face the BJP’s Kundan Singh in Begusarai constituency. Former JNU students’ union president, CPI’s Kanhaiya Kumar, contested in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from Begusarai. The BJP’s Kundan Singh, notably, is one of the richest candidates from the seats going to the polls in the second phase.