Live : Purnia Assembly Election 2020

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Santosh Kumar from the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) was elected to parliament from the Purnia seat in Bihar. He received 4,18,826 votes. His closest opponent was BJP's Uday Singh who received 3,02,157 votes.

The Purnia Lok Sabha seat was with Congress between 1957 and 1967. Congress candidate Phani Gopal Sengupta was elected from Purnia thrice from 1957 to 1967. In 1971, Congress' Mohammad Tahir was elected. After being a Congress stronghold for nearly two decades, in 1977, Lakhanlal Kapoor from BLD was elected to parliament from Purnia.

In 1980 and 1984, Madhuri Singh of the Congress was elected from the seat. In 1989 Janata Dal candidate Mohammad Taslimuddin won from Purnia.

In 1991 and 1996 Rajesh Ranjan who also went by the name Pappu Yadav was elected, once as an independent candidate and then on a ticket from the Samajwadi Party.

In 1998 BJP's Jaykrishna Mandal was elected; then in 1999 Rajesh Ranjan (Pappu Yadav) was elected as an independent candidate. In 2004 and 2009, Uday Singh won on a BJP ticket.

There are six assembly segments under the Purnia Lok Sabha constituency. These are: Kasba, Rupauli, Purnia, Banmakhi, Dhamdaha, and Kodha. 

In the 2019 General Elections, Uday Singh who also goes by the name Pappu Singh is Congress's candidate, Jitendra Urab is BSP's candidate, and Santosh Kumar is the JD(U) candidate.