Bihar Elections 2025: JDU Looks To Wrest Power In Hasanpur Last Claimed By Tej Pratap

The Janata Dal (United) is eyeing victory from Bihar's Hasanpur constituency after losing it to RJD's Tej Pratap Yadav in the last assembly polls. Now, after reading the tea leaves, the party will hope for redemption in the Bihar Elections 2025, having won it back-to-back before 2020.

Tej Pratap, the elder son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, had won Hasanpur by defeating Ray with a margin of 21,139 votes in 2020. This year, Tej Pratap is not contesting from what was considered a "safe seat" and will fight the assembly elections from Mahua in Vaishali district.

As the seat goes to polls in the first phase of the Bihar assembly polls on Nov. 6, here are the key details.

The Hasanpur assembly constituency falls under Rosera subdivision of Samastipur district but comes under the Khagaria Lok Sabha seat. The Yadav-dominated constituency also has significant presence of Muslims and other Backward castes like Kushwahas and Nishads.

The assembly segment consists of Bithan community development block, Hasanpur community development block and Bishnupur Diha, Kundal I, Kundal II, Jahangirpur and Shalepur gram panchayats of Singhia community development block.

There are 11 candidates in the fray after nominations of four contestants were rejected. The main candidates are Raj Kumar Ray from the Janata Dal (United); Mala Pushpam from the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Indu Devi from the Jan Suraaj Party.

Bibha Devi of the Bahujan Samaj Party; Manmohan Kumar of the Aam Aadmi Party and Imtiyaz Alam Ramzan Ali Shaikh from the Socialist Party (India) are also some of the candidates who are at the hustings. Moreover, Fulo Sahni, Manoj Mukhiya, Swetank Anand are contesting as independents.

The seat was a stronghold of socialist leader Gajendra Prasad Himanshu, who won it seven times overall since 1967. The Congress had won the seat only once in 1985. Since 2000, the JDU and the RJD have won it three times each.

JDU's Ray will now look to wrest back the seat he had won two times for the JDU in 2010 and 2015. However, the 53-year-old will face stiff competition from Mala Pushpam from the RJD. Moreover, it remains to be seen how much candidates like Indu Devi from Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party can make a dent in the vote share of the two major parties.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rajesh Verma from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), which contested under the NDA banner, had a lead of over 17,000 votes in the assembly segment.

The Bihar Assembly elections will see an electoral contest between the NDA and the grand alliance. NDA includes the Bharatiya Janata Party, JDU, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha.

The Mahagathbandhan includes the RJD, Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Mukesh Sahani's Vikasheel Insaan Party.

Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party will contest from all 243 seats in the state. The assembly elections are scheduled to be held on Thursday and Nov. 11 respectively, while the results will be declared on Nov. 14.