Jale is a block-level town in Darbhanga district and forms part of Bihar’s Madhubani parliamentary constituency. The Assembly segment comprises the entire Jale community development block and 25 gram panchayats of the Singhwara block, making it a fully rural constituency in north-central Mithila. The town takes its name from Jaleshwari Sthan, a local pilgrimage site in the area’s hinterland. Located just north of the Bagmati River, Jale is about 32 km northwest of the district headquarters Darbhanga and roughly 145 km northeast of the state capital Patna. Nearby towns include Madhubani (25 km northeast), Sitamarhi (50 km northwest), Muzaffarpur (65 km southwest), and Samastipur (70 km southeast).
Established in 1951, Jale has witnessed 18 Assembly elections so far, including a by-election in 2014. Voters have rarely followed rigid ideological patterns, electing candidates from parties spanning the Left, Centre and Right. Congress won the seat in the first three elections and returned to win again in 1985 and 1990. BJP has also claimed five victories, including one under its earlier Jana Sangh banner. The Communist Party of India won four times, RJD twice, and Janata Party and JD(U) once each.
Political lineage has also influenced elections in this region. Vijay Kumar Mishra, son of former Union minister Lalit Narayan Mishra, won the seat thrice, once with Congress and twice with the BJP. Vijay Kumar Mishra resigned from the BJP in 2014 and joined JD(U), triggering a by-election. His son, Rishi Mishra, contested that bypoll and won the seat on the JD(U) ticket. BJP’s Jivesh Mishra has held the seat since 2015 and retained it in the 2020 election, defeating Congress candidate Maskoor Ahmad Usmani by 21,796 votes.
Jale is a purely rural constituency with no urban voters. In 2020, it had 312,393 registered voters, including 36,987 Scheduled Caste voters (11.84 percent) and 90,593 Muslim voters (29 percent). By the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the number of registered voters had increased to 323,092. Migration of youth in search of employment is common in the region. The Election Commission reported that 3,376 voters on the 2020 roll had migrated by the time of the 2024 parliamentary election. Six Muslim candidates have represented the seat over the decades. Voter turnout in 2020 was 54.14 percent, the highest in recent polls.
Agriculture is the backbone of Jale’s economy, with paddy being the primary crop. Flooding from the Bagmati River affects several parts of the constituency during monsoons. Civic amenities remain basic, with limited access to higher education and healthcare. Local markets serve day-to-day needs, but larger services are accessed in nearby towns.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP led by 24,067 votes in the Jale Assembly segment. As the 2025 Assembly election approaches, the party enters the contest with a visible edge. For the opposition alliance, reversing this trend will require strong candidate selection, effective ground mobilisation, and careful management of caste equations.
(Ajay Jha)
