Several rivers, including the Ganga in the south, Koshi in the north, and Burhi Gandak in the west, flow near Bihpur, making its land ideal for farming. Agriculture is the primary occupation and source of livelihood for most people. The district headquarters, Bhagalpur, is 19 kilometres south of Bihpur, while Naugachhia and Sultanganj are other nearby towns.
There is no documented history of Bihpur other than it being part of the ancient Anga kingdom. Similarly, there is no record of how it got its name or what it means. One possibility is that the first three letters came from Bihar, which itself derives from the word Vihara (monastery), with Pur (settlement) added to it.
Established in 1951, Bihpur constituency is one of the six Assembly segments of the Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat. It comprises Narayanpur, Bihpur, and Kharik community development blocks. In the 2020 polls, Bihpur had 258,884 registered voters, which increased to 268,664 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In 2020, 7.8 percent of Bihpur’s voters were from the Scheduled Castes, while Muslims accounted for 12.6 percent. With no urban voters, Bihpur can be termed a purely rural constituency. However, election results show that Bihpur’s voters are somewhat restless, frequently changing their representative in the Bihar Legislative Assembly in search of development that has remained elusive.
This pattern is evident in the 17 Assembly elections since the constituency’s inception. In the first five elections between 1952 and 1969, no party or leader could win this seat twice in a row. The Congress won in 1952, the CPI in 1957, the Congress again in 1962, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1967. This trend was broken in 1969 when a new pattern emerged of two or three consecutive victories. CPI won three times in a row in 1969, 1972, and 1977, followed by two wins each for Congress (1980 and 1985), Janata Dal (1990 and 1995), and three consecutive victories for the RJD (2000, February 2005, and October 2005). After that, the musical chairs began again, with the BJP winning in 2010 and 2020 and the RJD in 2015. Overall, Congress, CPI, and RJD have each won the Bihpur seat four times, the BJP three times (including the Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s lone victory in its previous avatar), and the Janata Dal twice.
The BJP snatched the Bihpur seat from the RJD in 2020 with a margin of 6,129 votes, improving upon its 2010 margin of just 465 votes. In contrast, the RJD performed better in 2015, winning by 12,716 votes. The BJP may face a real challenge in retaining Bihpur, given that its ally, the JD(U), led in this Assembly segment by only 4,855 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Unless the promise under ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ is effectively communicated and trusted by voters, the Bihpur seat could go to anyone, with indifferent voters likely playing a decisive role. Nearly 42 percent of Bihpur’s electorate did not vote in 2020, which incidentally recorded the highest turnout in recent years at 58.06 percent.
(Ajay Jha)
