Polling Begins for Eight Bihar MLC Seats as 150 Candidates Vie for Seats

Polling for eight Bihar Legislative Council seats began at 8 a.m. on Friday, October 23, 2026, as 5,32,847 voters cast ballots across 933 polling stations. Voting will continue until 4 p.m. for four Graduates and four Teachers constituencies, with counting set for October 27. The combined electorate includes 1,46,611 women and 37 third‑gender voters, and the terms of the sitting MLCs end on November 16.

Contest Details

The Patna Graduates constituency has drawn attention after JD(U) MLA Anant Singh of Mokama publicly backed Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) candidate Anuj Singh, opposing his own party’s nominee Neeraj Kumar. Kumar, a former minister and close aide of former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is seeking a fourth consecutive term. Anant Singh alleges Kumar worked against him in last year’s assembly elections. The other constituencies in the fray are Darbhanga, Tirhut and Kosi Graduates, plus Patna, Darbhanga, Tirhut and Saran Teachers seats. The BJP has fielded candidates in four seats, including three sitting MLCs – Nawal Kishor Yadav (Patna Teachers), N. K. Yadav (Kosi Graduates) and Sarvesh Kumar (Tirhut Graduates) – and Narendra Kumar Singh for Tirhut Teachers, a seat currently held by CPI’s Sanjay Kumar Singh of the INDIA bloc. JD(U) has nominated candidates for the remaining four seats. The Jan Suraaj Party, led by Prashant Kishor, is contesting all eight seats. It revised its slate, swapping Bhushan Jha for Shyam Nandan Yadav in Tirhut Teachers and replacing Ravindra Yadav with Mohammad Imtiyaz (Noorani) in Darbhanga Graduates.

Context

These elections are part of Bihar’s biennial Legislative Council cycle, where graduates and teachers elect members separately, often reflecting shifting alliances among state parties.