Bihar election 2025 Phase 1: 42% voting so far; Gopalganj, Lakhisarai record highest turnout

Voting began for 121 seats in Bihar in the first phase of Assembly elections on Thursday morning amid tight security arrangements, an official said. The polling began at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm.

In the first phase, a total of 3.75 crore voters will decide the electoral fate of 1,314 candidates, including top leaders such as INDIA bloc's chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary of the BJP.

Yadav aims at a hat-trick in Raghopur, while his principal challenger Satish Kumar of the BJP had defeated his mother Rabri Devi in 2010 while contesting on a JD(U) symbol.

The seat was expected to witness a high-voltage contest, with Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor declaring that he wanted to take on Yadav on his home turf. However, Kishor decided not to contest, and his party gave a ticket to a less fancied candidate Chanchal Singh.

In adjoining Mahua, Yadav's estranged elder brother Tej Pratap, who has floated his own outfit Janshakti Janata Dal, is locked in a multi-cornered contest.

The elder son of RJD president Lalu Prasad seeks to wrest the seat from sitting RJD MLA Mukesh Raushan, though the presence of Sanjay Singh, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate who represents the NDA, and Independent Ashma Parveen, the runner-up of 2020, has queered the pitch.

Several ministers in the Nitish Kumar government, including Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, will also have their electoral fates decided in the first phase of polls. — with PTI

42.31% turnout recorded till 1 pm

November 6, 2025 1:42 pm