Tejashwi Yadav takes Raghopur, defeats BJP’s Satish Yadav by over 38,000 votes

The India Today-Axis My India exit poll found that Tejashwi Yadav is the ‘first choice for the chief minister’s chair with 44 per cent backing him’.

In the RJD manifesto, Tejashwi Yadav has promised to create 10 lakh jobs in the first meeting of the cabinet itself if he is voted to power | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

New Delhi: Tejashwi Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and son of former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, won his Raghopur constituency in Vaishali district by 38,174 votes. He beat BJP’s Satish Kumar Yadav.

While the Mahagathbandhan’s chief minister face had been leading from the beginning, the results were declared on the Election Commission website only after 12.45 pm Wednesday.

He polled a total of 97,404 votes against Satish Kumar’s 59,230. Lok Janshakti Party’s Rakesh Raushan got 24,947 votes.

While the RJD emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats in its kitty, according to latest reports, the Grand Alliance led by it could not manage to get the majority in the 243-member assembly. As of 1 am, NDA was leading with 125 seats. The halfway mark is 122.

Tejashwi is the sitting MLA and had defeated the BJP’s Satish Yadav by 22,733 votes in the 2015 polls. Satish Yadav had defeated Tejashwi’s mother, Rabri Devi, in the 2010 elections. 

While he was a candidate of the RJD-JD(U) grand alliance in 2015, this time round, he was the chief ministerial face of the Mahagathbandhan led by the RJD and the Congress, which was projected to win 139-161 seats according to the India Today-Axis My India Exit Poll predictions. The same poll has predicted a mere 69-91 seats for the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led NDA in Bihar.

Talking point these elections

The RJD leader, who turned 31 Monday, became a talking point of the Bihar election campaign as visuals of his crowded rallies despite the coronavirus pandemic began doing the rounds. He also set the narrative by promising 10 lakh government jobs.  

While the RJD performed abysmally in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls — the first without Lalu Yadav leading the party — Tejashwi has come into his own as a politician in these polls.  

Senior RJD leader and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj K Jha said, “He (Tejashwi) has the ability to listen to everyone, from people of Bihar to experts, who closely study the State and then make his mind independently.”

Raghopur went to polls in the second phase on 3 November, which also decided the fate of four other ministers in the Nitish Kumar government.