Lalganj was among the prominent administrative regions of Bihar during British rule. It was granted a Nagar Board (municipality) in 1969. At that time, areas like Hajipur and Samastipur fell under Lalganj’s jurisdiction.
The economy of present-day Lalganj relies mainly on agriculture, trade, and local businesses. The Gandak River flows nearby and plays a crucial role in irrigating farmland, which is well-suited for cultivating paddy, wheat, maize, pulses, vegetables, and tobacco. Many local farmers have also taken up banana, litchi, and mango plantations, while some have ventured into dairy farming. Lalganj’s strategic location near several cities ensures ready markets for local produce. The district headquarters, Hajipur, is 20 km southeast, the divisional headquarters, Muzaffarpur, is 37 km north, and the state capital, Patna, is 39 km southwest.
In recent years, Lalganj gained notoriety for its Bahubalis – criminals who entered politics – and their violent feuds. Thrice-elected Lalganj MLA Vijay Kumar Shukla, alias Munna Shukla, is a prominent figure. He is the younger brother of gangster Chhotan Shukla, a notorious criminal who was killed by the henchmen of then Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad, a strongman from Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Munna Shukla avenged his brother’s killing by murdering Brij Bihari Prasad. A lower court sentenced him to life imprisonment, but the Patna High Court later acquitted him. He contested three elections and won all of them, first as an Independent in 2000, then as an LJP nominee in February 2005, and later on a Janata Dal (United) ticket in October 2005. His wife, Annu Shukla, won the 2010 election as a JD(U) candidate. He contested the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Vaishali on a JD(U) ticket, later switched to the RJD, and lost again in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Eventually, the Supreme Court overturned the High Court’s acquittal, sentencing him to life imprisonment in the Brij Bihari Prasad murder case.
The Lalganj Assembly constituency was established in 1951 and is one of the six Assembly segments of the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat. It comprises the Lalganj and Bhagwanpur community development blocks. In the first three elections, Lalganj had two constituencies – Lalganj North and Lalganj South. The Congress won all three elections in Lalganj South, while an Independent won Lalganj North in 1962. After a delimitation exercise in 1967, Lalganj became a single unified seat. Since then, Lalganj has voted 14 times to elect its MLAs. The Congress won four times, while the Janata Dal, JD(U), and LJP each won twice. The Loktantrik Congress, Janata Party, an Independent, and the BJP have also won this seat once.
In the 2020 Assembly elections, the BJP won the Lalganj seat for the first time, with Sanjay Kumar Singh emerging victorious in a multi-cornered contest. Vijay Kumar Shukla, who had replaced his wife as the JD(U) candidate in 2015, was denied a ticket this time as the seat was allocated to the BJP under a seat-sharing agreement. He contested as an Independent but lost again. The BJP won by a comfortable margin of 26,299 votes, though the LJP also fielded a candidate against BJP since it had won the seat in 2015.
By the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA had resolved its internal differences, with both the JD(U) and LJP(RV) joining the alliance. The benefits of this unity were evident as LJP(RV) chief Chirag Paswan led in the Lalganj Assembly segment of the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat by a massive margin of 51,145 votes.
In 2020, the Lalganj Assembly constituency had 332,710 registered voters, of which 70,634 (21.23 percent) were Scheduled Caste and 27,615 (8.30 percent) were Muslim. Only 7.84 percent of Lalganj’s voters were urban, making it a predominantly rural seat. The number of registered voters increased to 350,651 in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
(Ajay Jha)
