Tejashwi Yadav, the Chief Ministerial face of the Opposition’s Mahagathbandhan, is trailing in his family stronghold, Raghopur, in early trends. BJP’s Satish Kumar has surged ahead. At 11.30 am, three and a half hours into the counting, Tejashwi is trailing by over 3,000 votes.
Votes for the high-voltage Assembly polls in Bihar are being counted today, and the 36-year-old RJD leader has said he was confident the Opposition bloc would form the government. Early today, he told the media, “It will be a people’s victory. Change will come. We are forming the government.”
Raghopur is a stronghold of the RJD. In the past, Tejashwi Yadav’s father and RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav and his mother Rabri Devi have held the seat. Tejashwi has been representing the seat since 2015. In the 2020 polls, he won the seat by a margin of over 38,000 votes.
This time, the BJP has chosen Satish Kumar Yadav as its Raghopur candidate. Yadav defeated Rabri Devi in the 2010 election as a JDU candidate. Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party has also fielded a candidate in Raghopur.
Interestingly, one of the candidates challenging Tejashwi Yadav is Prem Kumar from Janshakti Janata Dal, a party founded by Tejashwi’s estranged brother Tej Pratap Yadav.
Raghopur is a talking point in every election because it is considered the RJD’s safest seat, reserved for the party’s face. This time, poll strategist Prashant Kishor had sparked a buzz when he said he could contest from Raghopur. Later, he announced that Jan Suraaj leaders had decided he should not contest the poll and instead focus on the statewide campaign.