The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maithili Thakur, is leading in the Alinagar constituency by nearly 7,000 votes as votes in the Bihar Assembly polls were being counted on Friday.

As of 3.20 pm, Thakur had secured 56,083 votes, according to Election Commission data. The Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Binod Mishra was trailing with 49,149 votes.

Sixteen out of 24 rounds of counting have been completed.

Follow the Bihar Assembly elections result here.

BJP picked the folk singer to fight the election in Alinagar in the Darbhanga district. The 25-year-old is among the youngest candidates contesting the Assembly polls and joined the party only in October.

She had spoken about being “influenced by Prime Minister Modi” and wanting to “serve the people”, when she joined the BJP, The Indian Express reported.

Thakur is a household name in the state due to her folk music performance. Her popularity was amplified when she released Ram bhajan videos during the inaugration of the Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya.

Speaking to ANI on Friday, Thakur said her lead in the polls was “like a dream”.

“I will serve my people as their daughter,” she said. “I can only see Alinagar right now and how I can work them.”

Rashtriya Janata Dal’s veteran leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui had won the Alinagar seat seven times before withdrawing after his 2015 victory. In 2020, the seat went to the Vikassheel Insan Party’s Mishri Lal Yadav, who won by a margin of just over 3,000 votes.

Yadav eventually joined the BJP but was disqualified in May after he was convicted in an assault case. By October, he quit the party calling the BJP “anti-Dalit”, The Indian Express reported.

The BJP is contesting the Bihar election as part of the National Democratic Alliance. Apart from the BJP, the alliance also comprises the Janata Dal (United), Union minister Chirag Paswan’s faction of the Lok Janshakti Party, the Rashtriya Lok Morcha and the Hindustani Awam Morcha.

The opposition Mahagathbandhan comprises the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress, the Vikassheel Insaan Party and three Left parties – the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – along with the Indian Inclusive Party.

Read Scroll’s ground reports from Bihar here.

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