Babubarhi Assembly constituency, located in Bihar’s Madhubani district, comprises the Babubarhi and Ladania community development blocks along with seven gram panchayats of the Khajauli block. It was carved out in 1977 following the disbandment of the Ladania constituency, and has since participated in 12 Assembly elections, including a by-election in 2003. Babubarhi is one of the six Assembly segments that form the Jhanjharpur parliamentary seat.
The constituency has witnessed a diverse political journey, with no single party able to claim dominance. The Rashtriya Janata Dal has won the seat four times, while the Janata Dal (United) has secured three victories. The Congress party and the erstwhile Janata Dal have each won twice, and the Janata Party claimed the inaugural win in 1977. Veteran leader Deo Narayan Yadav, who served in Bihar’s first council of ministers in 1952and was Speaker of the Bihar Assembly between 1995 and 2000, won the Babubarhi seat four times – once on a Janata Party ticket in 1977, twice as a Janata Dal candidate in 1990 and 1995, and finally under the RJD banner in 2000. His death led to the 2003 by-election.
JD(U) has gained ground in recent years, winning back-to-back elections in 2015 and 2020. In the 2020 polls, Mina Kumari of JD(U) defeated RJD’s Uma Kant Yadav by 11,488 votes. Yadav had previously won the seat thrice for the RJD, in 2003, February 2005, and 2010. The 2020 victory margin was narrower than JD(U)’s 2015 win, when Kapil Deo Kamat defeated LJP’s Vinod Kumar Singh by 20,267 votes. JD(U)’s strength was further reflected in the Lok Sabha elections, where it led in the Babubarhi segment by 34,232 votes in 2024 and by a commanding 61,199 votes in 2019.
Babubarhi had 314,309 registered voters in the 2020 Assembly elections, including 44,789 Scheduled Caste voters (14.25 percent) and 35,516 Muslim voters (11.30 percent). Yadavs are the dominant caste group, accounting for 45,574 voters (14.50 percent) in 2020. Notably, candidates with the Yadav surname have won the seat eight times out of the 12 elections held so far. The constituency is entirely rural, with no urban voters, and recorded its highest turnout in recent years at 61.01 percent in 2020. By the 2024 parliamentary polls, the number of registered voters had increased to 321,752. The Election Commission reported that 3,948 voters from the 2020 rolls had migrated by 2024, highlighting the persistent issue of youth migration due to limited employment opportunities.
Babubarhi is located about 35 km from Madhubani, the district headquarters, and roughly 45 km from Darbhanga, a major urban centre in north Bihar. Jhanjharpur is 25 km away. The nearest railway station is in Khajauli, around 15 km away. Patna, the state capital, lies approximately 180 km to the southwest.
Given JD(U)’s strong performances in the constituency in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the party is set to go to the 2025 Assembly elections with a clear edge over the RJD-led opposition alliance.
(Ajay Jha)
