Patna: The results of eight Bihar legislative council seats, declared across Tuesday and Wednesday, produced a split verdict: All four sitting MLCs from the teachers’ constituencies lost, while incumbents in all four graduates’ constituencies retained their seats despite anti-incumbency pressures.The ruling NDA maintained its edge by winning four seats, while RJD and Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj won one each. Independents captured the remaining two seats. The outcome also marked Jan Suraaj’s first entry into the upper house and ended CPI’s lone representation in the legislative council.Voting for the four graduates’ and four teachers’ constituencies was held on Oct 23. Turnout was markedly higher in the teachers’ seats, at 82.85%, compared with 53.42% in the graduates’ constituencies.The biggest upset came in Patna teachers’, where RJD-backed Sanjeev Kumar defeated BJP veteran Nawal Kishore Yadav, a five-term MLC who had represented the seat for nearly three decades. The constituency covers educated voters in Patna, Nalanda and Nawada districts, and Yadav’s defeat signalled a setback for BJP among this electorate.In Patna graduates’, JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar won a fourth consecutive term. His victory came amid visible tensions within the ruling alliance, with Mokama strongman and legislator Anant Singh having backed Jan Suraaj’s Anuj Singh against him. The win reinforced the influence of JD(U)’s organisational network.The sharpest churn was in the teachers’ constituencies, where heavy voting preceded defeats for every incumbent. In Darbhanga teachers’, Jan Suraaj candidate Suresh Prasad Rai defeated two-term incumbent and former Bihar Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha by 324 votes, giving Kishor’s party its first legislative council seat and denting the traditional centre-left support base.In Tirhut teachers’, BJP nominee Narendra Prasad Singh won by 594 votes, defeating independent Bhushan Jha and pushing sitting CPI MLC Sanjay Kumar Singh to third place. The result removed CPI’s only member from the council. In Saran teachers, independent Rahul Raj, expelled by BJP before the polls, defeated NDA candidate Anand Pushkar of JD(U) and unseated Jan Suraaj incumbent Afaque Ahmad.The graduates’ seats contrasted sharply with the teachers’ contests, as established candidates survived multi-cornered fights. In Kosi graduates’, BJP incumbent N K Yadav completed a hat-trick, polling 31,823 votes and defeating RJD challenger Nitesh Kumar by 10,026 votes. Jan Suraaj’s Rajnish Ranjan finished third with 16,264 votes.In Darbhanga graduates’, BJP nominee Sarvesh Kumar narrowly retained the seat after a close preferential count. He defeated RJD’s Anil Kumar Jha by just 237 votes, with second-preference transfers carrying him past the required threshold. Jan Suraaj’s Imtiaz Noorani was a distant third, though the contest showed RJD’s challenge to BJP in the constituency.In Tirhut graduates’, incumbent independent Banshidhar Brajwasi secured a decisive win over NDA-backed JD(U) candidate Abhishek Jha. Counting at Muzaffarpur ended Wednesday after 12 rounds of preferential tabulation, with Brajwasi receiving 28,390 votes against Jha’s 22,685, a margin of 5,705 votes. RJD’s Rashmi Vinayak Gautam and Jan Suraaj’s Vimohan also mounted challenges, but Brajwasi stayed ahead through the elimination rounds.After the count, NDA’s winning seats were Patna, Darbhanga and Kosi graduates’ and Tirhut teachers; RJD won Patna teachers’, Jan Suraaj won Darbhanga teachers’, and independents won Saran teachers and Tirhut graduates in the final seat distribution announced Wednesday.
