The Bihar Legislative Council elections for eight seats boosted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won two seats on Wednesday – Tirhut Teachers’ and Kosi Graduates’ and was leading in Darbhanga Graduates’ – even as it lost its 30-year stronghold in the Patna Teachers’ constituency out of the four seats it contested.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Suresh Prasad Rai of the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) and Independent candidates Rahul Raj and Banshidhar Brijvasi won the Patna, Darbhanga and Saran Teachers’ and the Tirhut Graduates’ seats, respectively. Yadav, who had won the seat for five consecutive terms, lost to the RJD’s Dr Sanjeev Kumar, handing the opposition a key victory in a constituency the BJP had long held. The Congress, which contested five seats, failed to open its tally, dealing a blow to the grand old party. The Patna Graduates’ contest remained a major political flashpoint for the JD(U), with Neeraj Kumar, a senior party leader, former minister and sitting MLC, registering a hat-trick of victories. He defeated RJD candidate Dilip Kumar, with JSP’s Dr Anuj Singh trailing in third place. The Teachers’ results were otherwise fragmented. The most significant setback for the BJP was the defeat of veteran MLC Nawal Kishore Yadav in Patna Teachers’. For political strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, Rai’s victory offers a boost in Darbhanga and expands the JSP’s presence in Bihar’s legislature.
Counting was still on in Darbhanga Graduates’ constituency, with Sarvesh Kumar of the BJP securing 16,115 votes, leading over Anil Kumar Jha (14,615 votes) of the RJD till the filing of this report at 9:45 pm on Wednesday. RJD candidate Anil Kumar Jha was in second place, followed by Mohammad Imtiyaz of the Jan Suraaj party, with 10,227 votes. Tension prevailed at the counting centre during the counting of votes for the Darbhanga graduate constituency in the evening after a dispute broke out between counting agents of the NDA and RJD candidates Follow live updates on the MLC election results 2026 here . Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) candidate Suresh Prasad Rai defeated sitting Congress MLC Madan Mohan Jha in Darbhanga, while BJP rebel Rahul Raj won Saran Teachers’ as an Independent, defeating JD(U)’s Anand Pushkar and JSP’s Afaque Ahmad, who won as an Independent in the April 2023 by-election. Raj secured 3,300 votes against Pushkar’s 2,727, while Ahmad finished third with 2,454. It is the party’s second electoral victory after Kishor won the Bankipore Assembly by-election on August 3. However, Afaque Ahmad’s third-place finish in Saran, after winning the constituency’s 2023 by-election as a JSP-backed Independent, tempered the gains.
