Rosera, a subdivisional town on the banks of the Budhi Gandak river in Samastipur district, lies in Bihar’s Mithila region. Nearby cities include Dalsinghsarai, Samastipur, Munger, Muzaffarpur, and Begusarai. Located at the border of Samastipur and Begusarai districts, it is 32 km east of the district headquarters Samastipur and 109 km west of Patna, the state capital.
The local languages spoken here are Maithili, Hindi, and Urdu. Despite being largely rural, Rosera has an impressive literacy rate of 76.35 per cent, significantly higher than Bihar’s average of 61.8 per cent.
A trading hub, Rosera’s position along the Budhi Gandak’s trade route and its fertile plains make it agriculturally prosperous. Key crops include tobacco, maize, rice, wheat, sugarcane, mango, and lychee.
The Rosera Assembly seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. Once a Lok Sabha constituency, it was abolished during the 2008 delimitation and is now one of six Assembly segments under the Samastipur Lok Sabha seat.
Established in 1951, the Rosera Assembly seat has seen 17 regular elections and one bypoll. The Congress has won here five times and remains a strong contender, having last secured the seat in 2015. Socialist parties – the Praja Socialist Party and Samyukt Socialist Party – broke Congress’ winning streak by claiming victory in 1962 and 1967. The BJP, including its earlier avatar as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, has won three times. The Lok Dal, Janata Dal, and RJD have won twice each, while the JD(U) and an Independent candidate have won once each.
Scheduled Caste voters make up around 19.53 per cent of Rosera’s electorate, while Muslims account for roughly 9.2 per cent. The constituency is overwhelmingly rural, with 93.61 per cent of its 330,203 registered voters in 2020 residing in villages. Only 6.4 per cent were urban voters. That year, just 55.1 per cent of eligible voters turned out. By the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, registered voters had risen slightly to 336,479.
In the 2020 Assembly polls, the BJP’s Birendra Kumar defeated Congress party’s Nagendra Kumar Paswan by a substantial margin of 35,744 votes. This victory was notable because the LJP, outside the NDA, had fielded its candidate, yet the BJP still triumphed. Now, with the LJP back in the NDA fold, the BJP’s path appears smoother. The 2024 Lok Sabha results further bolstered its prospects. LJP(RV)’s Sambhavi Choudhary won the Samastipur seat, leading in all six Assembly segments, including Rosera. Given these results, the BJP is confident it is well-placed to hold on to Rosera in the 2025 Assembly elections.
(Ajay Jha)
