3.75 Crore Voters Set To Decide Fate of 1314 Candidates In First Phase Of Bihar Polls Tomorrow
Extensive security arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair voting.
By Dev Raj
Published : November 5, 2025 at 2:35 PM IST
Patna: As a hush fell on 121 Assembly constituencies spread across 18 districts, which will go to polls in the first phase on Thursday (November 6), the Assembly election campaign’s cacophony shifted towards the second phase in which 122 seats in 20 districts will go to polls on November 11.
Patna, Nalanda, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Bhojpur, Buxar, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Darbhanga, Saharsa, Madhepura, Khagaria, Munger, Begusarai, Saran, Siwan, and Gopalganj districts are going to the polls in the first phase.
The candidates and the electorate
Altogether 1314 candidates now wait for their fate to be decided by 3.75 crore voters in the first phase of polls. There are around 1.98 crore male and 1.77 crore female voters. These include 7.38 lakh youths, who will get the first opportunity to exercise the right to franchise. There are 758 third gender voters as well. There are 45,341 polling booths to cater to them.
As per institutions like Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which have analysed the affidavits of the candidates of the first phase, 32 per cent of them are facing criminal cases. A majority of the candidates of the NDA and INDIA are crorepatis.
The Muzaffarpur and Kurhani (Muzaffarpur district) seats have the maximum number of contestants at 20 each, while Bhore (Gopalganj), Parbatta (Khagaria), and Alauli (Khagaria) constituencies have the lowest number of candidates at five each.
Poll timings and security arrangements
Voting in five Assembly seats in the first phase, Simri Bakhtiyarpur and Mahisi in Saharsa district, Tarapur, Munger, and Jamalpur in Munger district, as well as 56 booths in Suryagarha constituency, will end at 5pm – one hour earlier than other constituencies due to concerns about the law and order situation. The normal polling time for all other constituencies and booths is 7am to 6pm.
“Extensive security arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair voting. Apart from the state police personnel, 1650 companies of central paramilitary forces have also been deployed. All polling booths would be monitored through CCTV cameras. Control rooms in the concerned districts will also keep a watch on polling,” Bihar director general of police (DGP) Vinay Kumar said.
The DGP added that the voters could be informed about malpractices on Dial 112, the phone numbers of the concerned police stations and superintendents of police, which were widely publicised, and were in the public domain.
NDA vs INDIA
As far as the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is concerned, chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) is contesting on 57 out of 121 seats, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has fielded candidates on 48. Union minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(R) is contesting 14, while Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) has candidates on two seats.
On the other hand, altogether 126 candidates of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), also known as the Mahagathbandhan, are contesting the 121 seats in the first phase. This has happened due to friendly fights on five seats – Vaishali, Bachhwara, Rajapakar, Biharsharif, and Beldaur.
In INDIA, Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), whose Tejashwi Prasad Yadav is the alliance’s chief ministerial candidate, is contesting on 73 seats, followed by the Congress on 24, CPIML on 14, Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) on five, CPI on five, CPM and IP Gupta’s India Inclusive Party (IIP) on three each.
The 121 seats that will go to the polls in the first phase have given an almost equally fractured mandate in the 2020 Assembly elections. The NDA had won 59 of them, while the Mahagathbandhan had grabbed 61 with an edge in the western parts of the state.
Poll consultant – turned – politician Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party has fielded candidates on 119 seats in the first phase.
Top candidates
Better known among the candidates are deputy chief ministers Samrat Choudhary (Tarapur) and Vijay Kumar Sinha (Lakhisarai), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Opposition’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (Raghopur), and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav (Mahua).
Fourteen ministers of the incumbent government – Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Mangal Pandey, Ratnesh Sada, Sanjay Saraogi, Madan Sahni, Jibesh Kumar, Kedar Prasad Gupta, Raju Kumar Singh, Krishna Kumar Mantu, Maheshwar Hazari, Dr Sunil Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Sharwan Kumar, and Nitin Nabin – are contesting in the first phase.
Other candidates from different parties, who have been hogging the limelight are – former Assam cadre IPS officer Anand Mishra from Buxar, former Bihar chief minister Daroga Rai’s granddaughter Karishma Rai from Parsa, Jailed gangster and former MP Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla’s daughter Shivani Shukla from Lalganj, Bhojpuri actor Khesari Lal Yadav from Chhapra, and deceased dreaded don and former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin’s son Osama Shahab from the Raghunathpur constituency.
The fate of musclemen Anant Singh (Mokama) and Ritlal Yadav (Danapur) would also be decided in the first phase of elections.
Singer and BJP candidate from Alinagar in Darbhanga district is the youngest candidate at 25, while RJD candidate from Siwan, former Assembly speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary, and JDU candidate from Harnaut in Nalanda district are the oldest at 78.
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