Tejashwi Yadav To Contest 2 Seats In Bihar: Sources

Tejashwi Yadav, senior leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, will contest from two seats in the coming assembly election in Bihar, sources have told NDTV. One is his family turf Raghopur. The other is Phulparas, Madhubani, where the sitting MLA is Sheela Kumari of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United.

Her closest rival was Congress's Kripanath Pathak, who lost by around 11,000 votes. 

The seat has been a JD(U) bastion since 2010. A victory here would be a blow to the ruling party and boost morale in the RJD camp. 

Yadav's choice of seat, coming on the heels of his party's stellar results in 2020 - emerging as the single largest party with 75 seats - could be seen as an expression of confidence. That time, the Opposition Grand Alliance had won 110 seats to NDA's 122 in the 243-member Bihar assembly. It lost a handful of seats by narrow margins - sometimes less than 1000 votes.

It would also establish his presence in Mithilanchal, which, along with Seemanchal, had saved the day for the NDA in 2020. The area, though, had voted for the Grand Alliance in a big way in 2015. The alliance, which also had JD(U) on its side that time, had swept the region, bagging 25 of the 30 assembly seats in Darbhanga, Samastipur, and Madhubani.

Tejashwi Yadav had won from the Raghopur seat -- from where he debuted in 2015 -- by a margin of over 38,000 votes, defeating BJP's Satish Kumar.

Raghopur was represented earlier by Tejashwi Yadav's parents -- former Chief Ministers Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi.

This time in Raghpur, Tejashwi Yadav could face a lively battle, with election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor indicating it could be the seat from where he would contest. His other choice is Kargahar seat in Rohtas district, which is currently held by Congress's Santosh Kumar Mishra.

If the Jan Suraaj Party leader chooses to contest from Raghopur, it could be a high-profile prestige battle for the RJD. 

Though all the established political parties in Bihar have dismissed the political newbie as a maverick, Tejashwi Yadav's decision to contest from two seats could be portrayed as a contingency plan by the NDA camp.