Bihar Legislative Council polls: Jan Suraaj, Samrat announcements add zing to battle for 8 seats

The Bihar Legislative Council elections for eight seats - four each from the graduate and teachers’ constituencies - scheduled in November has started getting intense even before the formal announcement of date

The Bihar Legislative Council elections for eight seats - four each from the graduate and teachers’ constituencies - scheduled in November has started getting intense even before the formal announcement of date.

Of the eight seats, independents at present hold three seats, BJP two, while one seat each is with the JD(U), Congress and the CPI.

But this time what has made the battle interesting is the decision of the Jan Suraaj Party of Prashant Kishor to contest all seats and internal dissension within mainline parties.

Election Commission sources said the poll schedule could be announced by the month end, as the term of all the existing members ends on November 16 and the entire exercise has to be completed before that. The voter list for these seats have already been prepared and the final rolls were published in December, 2025.

The four seats of teachers constituencies going to polls are Patna, Darbhanga, Saran and Tirhut - one each held by the BJP, Congress, CPI and Independent at present.

Afaq Ahmad won the by-elections in April 2023, contesting the Saran seat as an Independent backed by Jan Suraaj. Ahmad is tipped to be the Jan Suraaj Party candidate this time. From Tirhut seat, Sanjay Kumar Singh, a professor of the CPI will try to make it thrice in a row, having won it in both 2014 and 2020.

As far as graduate seats are concerned, JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar has already won from Patna thrice in succession since 2008 and will try for his fourth term. Last time he won even when he was ill and could hardly campaign. With Mokama MLA Anant Singh throwing his weight behind another candidate, JD(U) has been active to douse the flame well in advance.

BJP’s NK Yadav has won the Kosi graduate seat thrice since 2008 and is again preparing this time. Sarvesh Kumar won the Darbhanga graduate seat for the first time in 2020 as an Independent and he is tipped to go to the BJP side.

Bansidhar Brajwasi had won the Tirhut graduate seat by-election in 2024 in his first attempt as an Independent candidate after being suspended as a teacher due to his vocal criticism of the government policies.

Changing arithmetic

The announcement of Jan Suraaj to field candidates on all the eight seats is likely to make the battle intense. The party is upbeat after party founder Prashant Kishor snatched BJP’s bastion of Bankipore in the Assembly by-poll, which was represented by BJP national president Nitin Nabin.

What is significant is that Prashant Kishor is also set to undertake another Yatra in September-October, which would give his party the right build up for expansion. Kishor has himself spoken about fielding candidates for the panchayat elections as well as Legislative Council elections.

“The final decisions will be made after party executive meeting later this month. The consultations are in final stage,” said Jan Suraaj state president Manoj Bharti.

JD(U) also held a review meeting to discuss the modalities for the Vidhan Parishad election and exuded optimism that all was well within the party. After Anant Singh threw his weight behind Anuj Singh, he was called at the party office by state president Umesh Kushwaha to resolve the issues with Neeraj Kumar, who was also present there.

It is not clear which party Anuj Singh will contest from. There are speculations that he might be fielded by Jan Suraaj.

NDA has mostly decided its candidates, while the RJD-led Opposition is yet to decide it. A pumped up Jan Suraaj is likely to announce the candidates in a few days. The Opposition is yet to open its cards. Last time RJD did not win any seat.

Jan Suraaj would be a new player and could alter the equations due to small margin of error in elections for graduate and teachers’ constituencies, said political analyst NK Choudhary.

“The expanse of the graduate and teachers’ constituencies is big and spreads across several districts. Kosi graduate seat comprises graduate voters of 14 districts, while other seats are spread across 4-5 districts. Besides, there is also a possibility of rebel and Independent candidates playing spoilsport. As the voters are limited, their management for the poll also becomes decisive,” he added.

In Bihar Legislative Council includes, 1/12th of the total members are elected from graduates and teachers category. As per the updated voter list, the total number of voters for the four graduate seats is around 4.85 lakh, with Tirhut accounting for the highest 1.35 lakh. The number of voters for the teachers’ seats is, however, smaller, with Patna accounting for the highest number at 16,689.

Unaided edu policy

The announcement of CM Samrat Choudhary to give a separate pay scale to teachers and employees of hundreds of unaided institutions is being seen as a potential game changer, but its implementation on the ground remains as challenging. It has been an old demand, but due to complexities involved, no government could hitherto resolve the issue.

Education department officials are also not aware how it would happen in the absence of any defined mechanism. It was way back in 2008 that the Bihar government took a policy decision to abolish the Vitta Rahit Shiksha Niti and to provide performance-linked grant to the institutions, including degree colleges, but that also could not resolve the issue.

It was later noticed that the many of the teachers working in such colleges for long were appointed by the governing body of the colleges without any recommendation or concurrence by the erstwhile Bihar College Service Commission. The discrepancies in payment also surfaced and as a result, the matter got stuck.

A senior official of the department said the last time grant was released for unaided colleges was for the 2014-17 session. “There is a provision of annual grant of around ₹250-crore for unaided institutions, but that also invariably remains stuck,” he added.

Aware of the sensitivity, the Opposition leaders have also been making an issue out of it, which may prove decisive in the election due to the sheer number of such teachers. There are over 300 such colleges.