Bihar Elections 2025: It’s musical chairs in Kishanganj as candidates swap parties for crucial phase 2 voting today

Bihar Elections 2025: The second and final phase of the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 is being held across 122 constituencies of Bihar today. The first phase was held on 6 November. The results will be declared on 14 November.

Among the 122 seats voting on Tuesday are 24 seats of the Muslim-majority Seemanchal – a region in the northeastern part of Bihar, bordering West Bengal, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The region comprises four districts: Araria, Purnea, Katihar and Kishanganj.

Kishanganj has the highest concentration of Muslims in the state of Bihar. The district has four assembly seats, while the Lok Sabha seat has six districts.

In 2020, Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen won five seats in Bihar – all in Seemanchal. Three of these seats were in Kishanganj district, while two were in Purnea district. Four of the five AIMIM MLAs left the party and joined the RJD.

The only MIM leader who stayed back was Akhtarul Iman, the party’s Bihar president, who won from the Amour seat in Kishanganj Lok Sabha seat, which comes in Purnea district.

Here is the status of four assembly seats in Kishanganj district, along with the candidates contesting against each other in the 2025 election, scheduled for 11 November. All four seats have candidates in the fray who are the proverbial ‘Aya Rams and Gaya Rams’ of Bihar politics.

1-Kishanganj

Congress's Izharul Hasan won in 2020. Congress leader Mohammad Jawed had won the seat in 2010 and 2015. In 2019, Jawed won the Lok Sabha seat – the only seat that the Congress won in Bihar that year. In the bypolls, MIM candidate Qamrul Hoda won the seat in 2019.

But in 2020, Hasan won the seat as a Congress candidate. BJP’s Sweety Singh finished second, while Hoda finished third.

Hoda had joined the RJD after quitting MIM in 2020 following his defeat, but joined the Congress just before the assembly polls. In 2025, the sitting MLA, Hasan, was denied a ticket and instead, Congress fielded a new candidate, Hoda, for the seat. Hoda is contesting against Sweety Singh of the BJP and Shams Aghaz of the AIMIM.

Mohd Ishaq, a former AIMIM leader, is also contesting from the seat as Jan Suraaj Party candidate.

2- Bahadurganj

In 2020, M Anzar Nayeemi won the Bahadurganj seat as an AIMIM candidate. Lakhan Pal Pandit of VIP finished second, while M Tauseef Alam of the Congress finished third.

Nayeemi switched to the RJD soon after the 2020 polls. Nayeemi was denied a ticket by the RJD in 2025. Tauseef, the former Congress guy, is contesting as an AIMIM candidate in the 2025 polls.

The Congress has fielded Masawar Alam, who has previously been affiliated with other parties. The Jan Suraaj Party has fielded Varun Singh from Bahadurganj, who was previously associated with the BJP.

3- Kochadhaman

Izhar Asfi of the AIMIM won the seat in 202O. Asfi defeated RJD's Shahid Alam and JD(U) candidate Mujahid Alam.

Asfi also joined the RJD from AIMIM after winning the 2020 elections. RJD, however, denied him a ticket and instead fielded Mujahid Alam, former MLA and Janata Dal United leader. Alam left JD-U in protest against the Waqf Amendment Bill.

Alam won the seat in the 2014 and 2015 bypolls as a JD(U) leader.

Jan Suraaj has fielded Abu Affan Farooqui from the seat. Affan is a former president of Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union.

AIMIM has fielded Sarvar Alam, who was previously with the RJD, and whose father, Shahid Alam, also contested the 2020 assembly polls on an RJD ticket.

4- Thakurganj

In 2020, RJD's Saud Alam won the seat. Alam is the son of Maulana Asrarul Haq, a former Congress MP.

Alam is contesting against JD(U) leader and former MLA, Gopal Agarwal and AIMIM leader Ghulam Hasnain. Agarwal is contesting in 2020 as an independent candidate.