Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of former Bihar Chief Ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, has announced his intention to contest the upcoming election from the Mahua constituency in Bihar’s Vaishali district. This is the same seat he won in 2015 as an RJD candidate before being expelled from the party following a controversy over one of his Facebook posts.
“I will contest from Mahua,” the Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD) founder said, before adding that he will declare the candidates on October 13. He founded the party after he was disowned by the Yadav family and expelled from the party.
He said, “I will declare my candidates the day after tomorrow. Parso jordaar ailaan hoga [Big announcements will be made the day after tomorrow].”
When asked about whether he is talking with other parties, he said that “Everyone is coming to meet him”.
Tej Pratap, earlier in an interview with India Today TV, shared his plans to contest from the Mahua constituency. At the time, he said that if he didn’t get a ticket from the party, he would contest as an independent candidate. In 2020, he contested from Hasanpur and won.
“The people of Mahua only want me to contest from here. They are saying that if anyone else from the RJD is fielded here, they will not vote for him. If the party (RJD) gives me a ticket, I will contest for the RJD. If it doesn’t, I will contest as an Independent candidate, but will fight from Mahua only. It is my land of action,” Tej Pratap told India Today TV.
About Mahua constituency
The Mahua constituency, from which Tej Pratap is set to contest, is held by RJD leader Mukesh Kumar Raushan. In 2020, 1.7 lakh voters turned out to vote, comprising 60.04% of the total electorate in the constituency. Mahua will go to vote in phase 1 of the Bihar elections. The dominant parties here are the BJP, JDU, RJD and INC.
Before Tej Pratap and Mukesh, Ravindra Ray of the Janata Dal (United) won the election from this seat in 2010.
MLAs from the Mahua constituency over the years
| 1952 | Veerchand Patel | Indian National Congress |
| Phudeni Prasad | Socialist Party | |
| 1957 | Bindeshwari Prasad Verma | Indian National Congress |
| Shivnandan Ram | ||
| 1962 | Mira Devi | |
| 1977 | Phudeni Prasad | Janata Party |
| 1980 | Dasai Chowdhary | Janata Party |
| 1985 | Lokdal | |
| 1990 | Munsilal Paswan | Janata Dal |
| 1995 | ||
| 2000 | Dasai Chowdhary | Rashtriya Janata Dal |
| 2005 | Shivchandra Ram | |
| 2005 | ||
| 2010 | Ravindra Ray | Janata Dal (United) |
| 2015 | Tej Pratap Yadav | Rashtriya Janata Dal |
| 2020 | Mukesh Kumar Raushan |
Bihar Assembly election
The Bihar Assembly polls will take place in two phases – November 6, and November 11. The counting of votes will take place on November 14.
This upcoming electoral contest will be between the NDA, led by the BJP, and Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)), and the INDIA bloc, led by Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The INDIA bloc is trying to take over the “throne” in Patna and unseat Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Kumar, who has been Bihar’s CM for a decade now, is an NDA ally despite having founded the INDIA bloc.