• Source:JND
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Bihar Election 2025: With just a few months remaining in the much-awaited Bihar assembly election, both the major alliances, NDA and INDIA-Bloc, have started preparing for the ticket distribution. While the BJP-led NDA is contesting to make a comeback in the state, the RJD-led opposition alliance would try to form a government after almost two decades. Araria is one of the districts where both the alliances, along with the third force, Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj, are focusing, as it has six assembly constituencies. Earlier on Saturday, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav stated that the government has not done anything for the area.

Raniganj is the only reserved seat among the six assembly constituencies of the district. It has been reserved for scheduled castes since 1962 and has been represented mostly by men, especially since 1995. While the voting percentage of women has been higher in comparison to the other seats of the district, not a single woman has been elected as MLA here for the last thirty years.

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Out of several assembly polls, a woman MLA has been elected only two times, in the 1990 and 1995 elections. Shanti Devi won the consecutive elections from this seat and also became a minister in the Bihar government; however, no woman could win an election after that. Shanti Devi won the election from Raniganj Assembly on a Janata Dal ticket in 1990 and got a post of minister due to her spectacular victory.

However, former minister Yamuna Prasad Ram from RJD registered victory on this seat after a division in the Janata Dal in 2000. BJP's Parmanand Rishidev defeated Ashok Paswan in 2025, and Shanti Devi could only manage to secure the third seat, leading to the downfall of her political career.

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The reports also suggest that caste plays an important factor in the polls. In the 16 assembly elections held so far in Raniganj, Paswan caste candidates have won the most number of times. Whereas the Musahar caste of the Scheduled Caste has won five times, Mochi three times, Dhobi two times, Lala one time, and the Dhanuk caste's one candidate has succeeded in becoming MLA from Raniganj.