The Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD), led by Tej Pratap Yadav, older son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, on Monday (October 13, 2025) announced the names of 21 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly election.
On May 25, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav expelled from the RJD Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav, the incumbent MLA in the Hasanpur Assembly seat. The senior Mr. Yadav has also snapped all family ties with his older son, criticising Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav’s actions as “irresponsible”, and not in accordance with public conduct. In May 2018, Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav married Aishwarya Rai, granddaughter of former Bihar Chief Minister Daroga Prasad Rai, but filed for a divorce within five months.
Also read: Bihar election updates on October 13, 2025
Going by the Assembly seats he has selected, Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav has fielded the maximum number of candidates in constituencies where the RJD won in the 2020 election.
In the 21 constituencies where Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav is fielding his party’s candidates, 13 constituencies have incumbent MLAs of the INDIA bloc (the RJD, the Congress, and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist-Liberation or CPI-M-L-L). The remaining eight JJD candidates announced will contest for seats currently held by the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MLAs, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U).
At present, the RJD occupies 10 seats, the Congress two, the BJP six, the JD(U) two, the CPI (ML)(L) one in these constituencies.
Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav also announced his own candidature from Mahua Assembly seat, which is currently represented by the RJD.
The other Assembly seats in which Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav has fielded candidates include Belsand, Shahpur, Bakhtiyarpur, Bikram, Jagdishpur, Atri, Wazirganj, Benipur, Maner, Dumraon, Govindganj, Patna Sahib, Madhepura, Narkatiyaganj, Barauli, Kuchaikote, Hisua Mahnar, Baniyapur, and Mohiuddin Nagar
Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav has fielded candidates in 14 Assembly constituencies across as many districts, where polling will take place in the first phase of the upcoming election on November 6. In the remaining seven Assembly seats for which he has nominated JJD candidates, polling will take place in the second phase, on November 11.
Ahead of the upcoming Assembly election, Mr. Tej Pratap Yadav has formed an alliance with five parties — the Vikas Vanchit Insaan Party (VVIP), Bhojpuriya Jan Morcha (BJM), Pragatisheel Janta Party (PJP), Wajib Adhikar Party (WAP), and the Sanyukt Kisan Vikas Party (SKVP).
Switching sides
Meanwhile, four INDIA bloc MLAs — three from the RJD and one from Congress party — have switched sides to join the ruling NDA.
RJD MLAs Vibha Devi and Prakash Veer joined the ruling JD(U) in the presence of senior party leader Shravan Kumar, while the Congress’s Sangita Kumari joined the BJP at the party’s office in the presence of BJP State unit president Dilip Kumar Jaiswal.
Ms. Devi represents the Nawada Assembly seat; Mr. Veer represents the Rajauli Assembly seat; Ms. Kumari represents the Mohania Assembly seat.
The Congress MLA from the Bikram Assembly seat Siddharth Saurabh, and former JD(U) MP Sunil Kumar Pintu, joined the BJP at the party’s office. Former Chief Income Tax Commissioner Sujit Kumar also joined the BJP.
Mr. Jaiswal administered BJP memberships to all of them.
Asked about the list of NDA candidates, Mr. Jaiswal said it would be released soon.
Published – October 13, 2025 10:31 pm IST
