Overview
- Polling opened at 7 am across 18 districts and will largely run until 5 pm at 45,341 stations, most in rural areas, with security and EVM/VVPAT arrangements in place.
- Key contests feature Tejashwi Yadav seeking a third win in Raghopur against BJP’s Satish Kumar, Deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary in Tarapur and Vijay Kumar Sinha in Lakhisarai, and BJP minister Mangal Pandey in Siwan.
- Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj is contesting statewide and has fielded Chanchal Singh in Raghopur, while AIMIM is running independently on select seats.
- The elections follow a special revision that set Bihar’s voter roll at about 7.24 crore; Phase 1 includes 10.72 lakh new electors and a sizable 18–19 age cohort.
- Ahead of Phase 2, an ADR analysis found 32% of candidates have declared criminal cases and 26% face serious charges, with 73 constituencies flagged as red alert and 43% of candidates listed as crorepatis.