Battle for Shivhar: A Look at Bihar’s Swing Constituency

• The Shivhar Assembly seat has seen a frequent change in representatives.
• The seat was once a Congress stronghold, with Raghunath Jha winning six times.
• The 2020 election saw a major victory for RJD’s Chetan Anand.
• Voters from the Vaishya community have the largest influence on the seat.

Harshita Rai
The Shivhar assembly seat is the only one in the Shivhar district. The political race for this seat has been interesting for decades. Voters have changed their representative in almost every election. However, the seat was once considered a Congress stronghold.

Raghunath Jha was the MLA from this seat for six consecutive terms. He was first with Congress, then became a member of the Janata Party and Janata Dal. He also served as a minister in the Bihar government. Jha won the 1972, 1977, and 1980 assembly elections on a Congress ticket. He later won the 1990 and 1995 elections on a Janata Dal ticket.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Shivhar district is 656,246. About 96% of the district’s population lives in villages. In this constituency, the Vaishya community has the most voters, followed by the Rajput, Muslim, Brahmin, and Bhumihar communities.

So far, RJD has won this seat five times, Congress four times, and Janata Dal and JDU have won twice each.

In the 2015 assembly election, Sharfuddin of Janata Dal (United) secured the victory. He defeated Hum (Secular) candidate Lovely Anand in a very close contest. The winning margin was just 461 votes. Sharfuddin received 44,576 votes, while Lovely Anand got 44,115 votes.

In the 2020 election, JDU again fielded Sharfuddin. This time, his opponent was RJD’s Chetan Anand. Chetan Anand won with a huge margin of 36,686 votes. Sharfuddin could not achieve a hat-trick of victories. Chetan Anand received a total of 73,143 votes, while Sharfuddin had to settle for 36,457 votes.