Raniganj Assembly constituency, reserved for Scheduled Castes, is located in Araria district of Bihar and comprises the entire Raniganj community development block along with seven gram panchayats of Bhargama block, namely, Birnagar East, Birnagar West, Dhaneshwari, Haripur Kala, Khutha Baijnathpur, Naya Bhargama and Vishaharia. The seat came into existence in 1957 and has witnessed 16 assembly elections so far.
In the initial decades, the Congress party held sway over Raniganj, winning five times, the last being in 1985. The BJP has won this seat thrice, including two victories in 2005 when elections were held twice that year. Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United) have won it twice each, while Independent candidates have also emerged victorious on two occasions. The Janata Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal have won it once each. The BJP held the seat for three consecutive terms before losing to JD(U) in 2015 by a margin of 14,930 votes after the alliance between the two parties broke down. In 2020, the JD(U) retained the seat with its sitting MLA Achmit Rishidev defeating RJD’s Avinash Manglam by a narrow margin of 2,304 votes.
The BJP may stake claim to contest the seat in the upcoming 2025 assembly elections, citing its strong performance in the Lok Sabha polls. The party secured leads of 42,651 votes in 2019 and 18,231 votes in 2024 in the Raniganj Assembly segment. Given this trend, the RJD-led opposition alliance may find it difficult to wrest the seat from the NDA, regardless of which constituent contests it.
Raniganj is a purely rural constituency with no urban voters. It had 336,020 registered voters in the 2020 assembly elections. Among them, 67,305 were Scheduled Caste voters, accounting for 20.03 percent of the electorate. Scheduled Tribe voters numbered 13,135, making up 3.90 percent, while Muslim voters stood at 105,510, forming 31.40 percent of the electorate. The voter turnout in 2020 was 55.35 percent, slightly lower than the 56.98 percent turnout recorded in 2015. The number of registered voters rose to 347,959 in the 2024 parliamentary elections. The Election Commission reported that 5,714 voters from the 2020 roll had migrated, reflecting the ground reality of large-scale migration of youth to bigger cities and other states due to the lack of industrialisation and employment opportunities in the region.
The terrain of Raniganj is flat and low-lying. The region is part of the floodplains of north Bihar and is prone to seasonal waterlogging and flooding, especially during the monsoon months. The Koshi and Mahananda rivers flow near the constituency and play a significant role in supporting agriculture, though they also contribute to the flood vulnerability of the area.
The local economy is predominantly agrarian, with paddy, maize and jute being the major crops cultivated. There are no major industrial units in the constituency, and the absence of agro-based industries has contributed to economic stagnation. A large section of the population depends on seasonal labour and migratory work in other states.
Raniganj is situated about 27 km west of Araria, the district headquarters. It is around 25 km from Banmankhi Bazar, 26 km from Forbesganj, and 35 km from Murliganj. The nearest major city is Purnia, located approximately 46 km to the southwest. The state capital, Patna, is about 247 km away. Raniganj is connected by road to Araria and other nearby towns. The nearest railway stations are Araria Court and Araria Junction, both located around 30 km from Raniganj.
(Ajay Jha)
