Bihar Opposition RJD, ruling JD(U) gear up for upcoming polls to eight legislative Council seats

For the upcoming eight Bihar legislative council seats — four each for Teachers and Graduates category elections, the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal has announced names of six candidates while, the ruling JD(U) too has almost finalised the names of the party candidates on two graduate constituencies. The other parties too are likely to announce names of their candidates soon.The newly-launched Jan Suraaj Party by Prashant Kishor too has announced its decision to contest the upcoming council poll on all eight seats.The term of the eight candidates will expire on November 16, 2026 and the dates for elections are likely to be announced by the end of September. Out of the eight seats getting vacant, NDA has three seats, two are with the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) , while the remaining are with Independent candidates, including Jan Suraaj Party-supported Saran teacher’s council seat. The Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal has announced names of Sanjeev Kumar Singh and Prof Jairam Yadav from the Patna and the Saran teacher’s constituencies seat respectively, while names for Patna, Darbhanga, Tirhut and Kosi Graduates constituencies too were announced. These will be contested by Dilip Kumar, Anil Kumar Jha, Rashmi Vinayak Gautam and Nitesh Kumar respectively. State Party president Mangani Lal Mandal said that names for two remaining teacher’s constituencies Darbhanga and Tirhut will be announced soon.However, party leader and Singapore-based daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Rohini Acharya took a jibe over the selection of candidates. “It is a great insult to give priority to opportunistic faces rather than the dedicated party leaders having ideological allegiance to the party, just before the [council] elections come…” she said in her post on social media while adding, “this decision is not only broken promises to the leaders loyal to Lalu Prasad but, to the ideology of Lalu Prasad, the basic principles of the party and is a grave blow to the strength of party’s organization”.Meanwhile, the ruling Janata Dal (United) has decided to contest on four, out of total eight seats, and has almost finalised names of its possible candidates for Patna and Tirhut graduate constituencies as Neeraj Kumar and Abhishek Jha. The State party president Umesh Kuhswaha said that the party will officially announce final list of candidates on all four seats “soon”. The ruling alliance coalition partner BJP too is yet to announce names of the candidates. However, in JD(U) the bahubali (heavyweight) party MLA from Mokama Anant Singh, has announced his support for Anuj Singh for the council election from Patna Graduate seat, instead of Neeraj Kumar. Though, the party, recently, had called a meeting to resolve the issue between the two leaders but, party sources said, the Mr. Anant, later, went on throwing weight behind Mr Anuj.The newly-launched Jan Suraaj Party of former poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor who, recently won the Bankipur Assembly by-poll in Patna which had been a traditional stronghold of BJP president Nitin Nabin, has announced the decision to field party candidates on all eight council seats but, state party president Manoj Bharti said, “the final decision on the issue will be made after party executive meeting to be held later this month.“Due to very small margin of errors in both the Teachers and Graduate constituencies council elections, Jan Suraaj Party could alter the equations this time in poll results”, political analyst Nawal Kishore Choudhary said. Published - September 13, 2026 10:18 am IST