Alinagar, Lakhisarai, Arrah Election Result 2025 Highlights: Debutant Maithili Thakur wins Alinagar seat, becomes youngest MLA in state

BJP's Maithili Thakur continues her steady lead in Alinagar. The 25-year-old folk singer is the BJP’s youngest candidate in this Bihar elections.

As Maithili Thakur takes early lead for BJP in Alinagar, her candidacy is meant to be more than star appeal — it’s a cultural statement for the saffron party. Fielding the young singer from Alinagar, in Darbhanga district, is the party’s attempt to turn Mithila’s cultural pride into political capital across the region.

Counting of votes is underway across 243 constituencies in Bihar and security has been beefed up across at counting centres. Following a high-octane campaign and 20-year rule, the JD(U)-led by Nitish Kumar aims to retain power along with its NDA allies while the Mahagthbandhan hopes to break the RJD’s electoral jinx.

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Counting of EVM will begin at 8:30 am. The counting of votes polled in the two-phase elections commenced at 8 am across 46 centres in 38 districts, the officials said.

The elections are being seen as a veritable referendum on Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president and the state's longest-serving chief minister.

As vote counting is underway, RJD spokesperson Priyanka Bharti says, "The government is changing, and the 20-year wait of the people here is finally coming to an end. History is being written across the entire country... The nation is going to have such a young CM in the state."

With PTI inputs

Counting of votes has begun and postal ballots are being taken up for counting first.

Counting of votes will begin shortly. Stay tuned here as we bring latest updates from the Election Commission of India.

The top leadership of both the ruling NDA and the Opposition Mahagathbandhan are claiming that the increase in voter turnout in the Bihar Assembly elections

Bihar saw an overall 66.91% voter turnout over two phases of polling, which is the highest since the first Assembly elections in the state in 1951, and an increase of 9.62 percentage points over 57.29% in 2020.

In states where electoral contests are largely bipolar, such as Bihar, the traditional wisdom is that an increase in voter turnout suggests the possibility of a change of government. But where smaller parties could play key roles by cutting votes, no side can be sure. However, given how close the 2020 elections were, this huge surge in voting is expected to be decisive.

Over the past 17 Assembly elections in Bihar, there have been five instances when an increase in the voter turnout was followed by a change in the government.

The first change of power happened in 1967 when the Jan Kranti Dal unseated the Congress, after seven terms in power. That year, the voter turnout had seen an increase by 7.04 percentage points over the previous election, to 51.51%.

Two years later, the Congress returned to power, in another change of regime coinciding with an increase in voter turnout -- though marginally, by 1.28 percentage points, to 52.79%.

In 1977, the Janata Party came to power, ending two consecutive Congress terms. This time there was a decrease in the voter turnout from the previous elections by 2.28 percentage points, to 50.51%.

The Congress bounced back in 1980, after the voter turnout again increased, by a significant 6.77 percentage points, to 57.28%. The Congress retained power in 1985, when there was a marginal decline of nearly 1 percentage point in the turnout, to 56.27%. Click here to read more

In Arrah, which is in Bhojpur, the NDA is hopeful of registering a far more comfortable win than in 2020, when Quyamuddin Ansari of the CPI (M-L) Liberation lost to the BJP’s Amrendra Pratap Singh by 3,002 votes.

In Arrah, BJP’s Sanjay Singh “Tiger” is up against JSP’s Vijay Kumar Gupta and CPI (ML)’s Quyamuddin Ansari. The seat has been switched back and forth between the BJP and the RJD during every Assembly election since 2010. In 2010 and 2020, Amrendra Pratap Singh of the BJP emerged victorious, while the runner-up was Ansari. In the 2015 bypoll, RJD candidate Mohammad Nawaz Alam secured victory.

The Mahagathbandhan hopes to break JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar’s two-decade run as Bihar Chief Minister, while the NDA hopes to continue to helm the state. While the RJD in alliance with the JD(U) won the 2015 Bihar elections, the alliance broke soon after. Now, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, supported by the Congress, is fighting to break the RJD’s electoral jinx. Key candidates include Bijendra Prasad Yadav, a veteran JD(U) leader and the most senior member of the state cabinet, who seeks to retain his Supaul seat for a record eighth term.

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Hello and welcome to Alinagar, Lakhisarai, Arrah Election Results live blog!

The much awaited Bihar Assembly Election results will be out today and the counting of votes will begin at 8am. Alinagar, Lakhisarai, Arrah are among the constituencies where key battles are fought. Stay tuned here for latest updates as the Election Commission announces Bihar Election results.