Bihar Assembly Election 2023: The Battle of Razor-Thin Margins in Key Constituencies

Bihar Assembly Election: Several constituencies facing intense scrutiny today are those with razor-thin victory margins from the 2020 elections.

Patna:

Among the 121 assembly seats in Bihar heading to polls today, both ruling and opposition alliances are paying exceptional attention to a select few constituencies. These particular seats had the narrowest victory margins during the 2020 electoral contest.

In total, 52 seats witnessed victory margins below 5,000 votes, distributed across the political spectrum. Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal secured 15 of these closely contested seats, while Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United claimed 13 and the BJP won nine.

Remarkably, approximately 12 constituencies recorded victory margins in mere triple or even double figures.

The slimmest margin occurred in Hilsa, located in Nalanda district, where the Janata Dal United candidate prevailed by an astonishing margin of just 12 votes.

Hilsa is among the constituencies voting in today's round. Also included are Matihani, Bachhwara, Kurhani, Barbigha, and the Scheduled Caste seat of Bakhri—all of which previously witnessed extremely close electoral contests.

The key constituencies:

Hilsa

In the 2020 election, Janata Dal United's Krishnamurari Sharan defeated his closest competitor, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Shakti Singh Yadav, by a mere 12 votes. Sharan received 61,848 votes compared to Yadav's 61,836 votes.

Shakti Singh Yadav was the incumbent MLA at that time, having won decisively in 2015 against Lok Janshakti Party's Deepika Kumari by over 26,000 votes.

Barbigha

Nitish Kumar's JD(U) also secured a narrow victory in Barbigha, Sheikhpur district, with a margin of just 113 votes. The sitting MLA Sudarshan Kumar, who had transitioned from Congress to JD(U), defeated Independent candidate Chandan Kumar by polling 39,878 votes.

Sudarshan Kumar is now contesting as an Independent candidate while JD(U) has nominated Dr Kumar Pushpanjay for the seat.

Matihani

The Matihani assembly constituency in Begusarai district witnessed another tight race between Lok Janshakti Party's Rajkumar Singh and JD(U)'s Narendra Kumar Singh. Rajkumar Singh emerged victorious with a 333-vote margin and subsequently joined the JD(U).

Bachhwara

Bacchwara constituency in Begusarai district went to the BJP in 2020, with Surendra Mahata defeating CPI's Awadhesh Kumar Rai by 484 votes. Both candidates are competing again in the current election. The Congress has fielded Shiv Prakash Garib Das, who finished a distant third in the previous election.

Kurhani

Kurhani in Muzaffarnagar district was another constituency with less than a 1,000-vote victory margin in 2020. The seat was won by Rashtriya Janata Dal's Anil Kumar Sahni, who edged past BJP's Kedar Prasad Gupta by 712 votes.

Gupta later returned with a decisive victory in the 2022 by-poll and currently serves as the Panchayati Raj minister in Nitish Kumar's government.

Bakhri

The Bakhri assembly constituency in Begusarai district is reserved for Scheduled Castes. In 2020, CPI's Suryakant Paswan won by defeating his nearest rival, BJP's Ramshankar Paswan, by a margin of 777 votes.