A tight contest is playing out in the Raghopur Assembly segment as vote counting for the Bihar Assembly elections is underway.
Rastriya Janata Dal leader and Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav is up against BJP’s Satish Kumar Yadav in the Assembly segment. Other candidates in the fray include Chanchal Kumar from Jan Suraaj Party and Raju Kumar from Aam Aadmi Party.
According to trends from the Election Commission of India as of 3 pm, Satish is putting up a tough fight, with Tejashwi trailing by over 4,800 votes after 11 rounds of counting. While Satish has polled 44,929 votes, Tejashwi has secured 40,100 votes.
Lalu’s family bastion hanging by a thread
The Raghopur constituency, part of Bihar’s Vaishali district, was being seen as one of the key contests even before its residents cast their votes in the first phase on November 6.
Satish, a Yaduvanshi leader, has established himself as a strong challenger in the present Raghopur contest. The BJP leader had also defeated Rabri Devi to win the seat in the 2010 Assembly elections on a JD(U) ticket, later joining the BJP.
The seat is seen as a stronghold of former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s family. His son and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has represented the constituency for a decade now, defeating BJP’s Satish Kumar Yadav in 2015 and again in 2020. Tejashwi is now seeking to get re-elected from the constituency for the third consecutive time.
Before Tejashwi, his father Lalu Prasad Yadav and mother Rabri Devi, both former chief ministers, have represented the Assembly segment. Lalu won the seat in 1995 and 2000, serving as the chief minister of Bihar both times. Rabri Devi represented the constituency thrice, first in the by-elections in 2000 and later in two subsequent Assembly polls.
Raghopur’s voter turnout during the 2025 Assembly elections stood at 64 per cent.
