Ekma Assembly constituency, located in Bihar’s Saran district, is part of the Maharajganj parliamentary seat. It was first established in 1952 and remained defunct between 1957 and 2008. The constituency was revived following the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission and has been a regular electoral unit since the 2010 Assembly elections. It is a general category seat and includes the Ekma and Lahladpur community development blocks, along with nine gram panchayats from Manjhi and three gram panchayats of Ekma blocks.
Ekma town lies along the Chapra–Siwan railway line and is connected by road to nearby urban centres. It is situated about 35 km west of Chapra, the district headquarters, and roughly 25 km east of Siwan. The state capital Patna is approximately 110 km to the east. Other nearby towns include Maharajganj (30 km), Gopalganj (60 km), and Ballia in Uttar Pradesh (70 km). The region lies in the fertile Ghaghara-Gandak plains, with agriculture as the mainstay of its economy. Paddy, wheat, maize, and pulses are the dominant crops. The area also has some small-scale rice mills and brick kilns but lacks significant industrial development that could provide employment opportunities to the youth.
Ekma has witnessed three Assembly elections since its revival. The Congress party won the seat in 1952, while JD(U) secured victories in 2010 and 2015. In the 2020 Assembly elections, RJD’s Srikant Yadav defeated JD(U)’s Sita Devi by a margin of 13,927 votes. The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidate Kameshwar Kumar Singh finished third with 29,948 votes, more than double the RJD’s victory margin. The JD(U)’s defeat in Ekma was part of a broader pattern across Bihar, where the LJP, having exited the NDA with the stated aim of preventing JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar from returning as chief minister, damaged JD(U)’s prospects in at least 25 constituencies.
Ekma’s electorate is entirely rural. There were 303,364 registered voters in the 2020 Assembly elections. Scheduled Castes accounted for 12.27 percent (37,223), while Scheduled Tribes made up 3.67 percent (11,133). Muslim voters formed around 10 percent (30,336) of the electorate. The number of registered voters rose to 312,376 in the 2024 parliamentary polls. According to the Election Commission, 3,411 registered voters of 2020 had migrated elsewhere before the 2024 elections. A cause of concern in Ekma is the indifference of voters, with nearly half of its electorate having abstained from voting. Turnout in 2020 was a disappointing 50.71 percent.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP led in the Ekma Assembly segment by a margin of 16,574 votes with a vote share of 52.53 percent. The Congress party, which contested the seat on behalf of the RJD-led opposition alliance, polled 41.6 percent. With the LJP now back in the NDA fold, the RJD may face a tougher challenge in retaining Ekma, as anti-incumbency votes may not split the way they did in 2020.
(Ajay Jha)
