Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Bhartiya Janta Party candidate and singer Maithili Thakur during a public rally for the Bihar assembly elections, at Alinagar in Darbhanga.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Emerging as a giant slayer, 25-year-old Maithili Thakur, on Friday (November 14, 2025) has taken a lead by 8,544 votes over her opponent – Binod Mishra, an RJD heavyweight, as per the latest trends at 12 noon.
Ms. Thakur, who turned 25 on July 25 this year, will be the youngest representative to be elected to the Bihar Assembly.
Also read: Bihar election 2025 results LIVE
The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has taken a sizable lead over the Opposition bloc — Mahagathabandhan (MGB) in 188 seats. Other 25-year-olds in the fray include Sonu Kumar from Goh, Naveen Kumar and Amrita Soni from Batnaha, Kundan Kumar from Sheikhpura, Shambhu Babu from Supaul and Rajkumar Sada from Simri Bakhtiarpur.
The average age of candidates in the two-phased Bihar elections is said to be around 51 years.
Apart from being the youngest in this assembly, Ms. Thakur’s election will also mark the first time BJP has won Alinagar – a Darbhanga seat with a significant Muslim population. Previously, Bihar youngest MLA was independent candidate 26-year-old Tauseef Alam in 2005, followed by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav who was elected from Raghopur at 26 years in 2015.
From reality show to Legislative Assembly
Hailing from Benipatti in neighbouring Madhubani district, Ms. Thakur, who is trained in Indian classical and devotional music, first shot to national fame when she featured in TV shows such as ‘Rising Star’ and her folk performances fused with Sufi rendered in twelve different languages across the world.
Her political campaign saw the involvement of her entire family. One of her younger brothers, Rishav Thakur, who plays the tabla and the youngest sibling – Ayachi Thakur accompanied her in singing folk songs. Their maternal uncles, Nand Kishore Jha and Sumit Jha, were also coordinating logistics. If elected, she has said she would introduce Mithila painting as extra-curricular activities in school, rename Alinagar as Sitanagar, do something better for education, especially for girl children, and employment for jobless youths.
Falling under Darbhanga area, Alinagar is a mix of upper-caste Brahmin denizens, a sizable Muslim population along with Yadavs, and Extremely Backward Classes such as Mallahs and Paswans. Alinagar was an MGB stronghold since 2008 with RJD’s Abdul Bari Siddiqui winning it twice (2010 and 2015) and VIP’s Mishri Lal Yadav winning it in 2020. As BJP dropped Mr. Mishra, who was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a 2019 criminal case by the MP-MLA court in Darbhanga, he resigned from BJP.
Published – November 14, 2025 12:48 pm IST
