The Bhabua assembly seat in Bihar was vacated after the death of the BJP's Anand Bhushan Pandey. The BJP-JD(U) ruling alliance has fielded his widow Rinki Rani Pandey and hopes to win the seat that has a big chunk of Dalits voters. The Congress has put up Shambhu Patel, banking on the popularity of former Lok Sabha speaker and Dalit leader Meira Kumar, who has earlier represented Sasaram, the parliamentary constituency of which Bhabua is an assembly segment.