The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maithili Thakur on Friday won the Alinagar constituency in the Darbhanga district by a margin of more than 11,000 votes in the Bihar Assembly polls.
Thakur had secured 84,915 votes, according to Election Commission data. The Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Binod Mishra came second with 73,185 votes.
Follow the Bihar Assembly elections result here.
The 25-year-old is among the youngest candidates contesting the Assembly polls and joined the party only in October.
She had spoken about being “influenced by Prime Minister Modi” and wanting to “serve the people”, when she joined the BJP, The Indian Express reported.
Thakur is a household name in the state due to her folk music performance. Her popularity was amplified when she released Ram bhajan videos during the inaugration of the Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya.
Speaking to ANI on Friday, Thakur said her lead in the polls was “like a dream”.
“I will serve my people as their daughter,” she said. “I can only see Alinagar right now and how I can work them.”
Rashtriya Janata Dal’s veteran leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui had won the Alinagar seat seven times before withdrawing after his 2015 victory. In 2020, the seat went to the Vikassheel Insan Party’s Mishri Lal Yadav, who won by a margin of just over 3,000 votes.
Yadav eventually joined the BJP but was disqualified in May after he was convicted in an assault case. By October, he quit the party calling the BJP “anti-Dalit”, The Indian Express reported.
The BJP is contesting the Bihar election as part of the National Democratic Alliance. Apart from the BJP, the alliance also comprises the Janata Dal (United), Union minister Chirag Paswan’s faction of the Lok Janshakti Party, the Rashtriya Lok Morcha and the Hindustani Awam Morcha.
The opposition Mahagathbandhan comprises the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress, the Vikassheel Insaan Party and three Left parties – the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – along with the Indian Inclusive Party.
Read Scroll’s ground reports from Bihar here.
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