The districts which brought the Lalu Prasad regime of 15 years down in 2005 goes to the fourth phase of the assembly elections on 1st November.
The 42 assembly seats are spread over Patna, Bhagalpur, Munger, Sheikhpra, Jamui Begusarai, Khagaria and Lakhisarai districts.
Prominent among 575 candidates in the fray are state BJP stalwarts and ministers Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Bhagalpur), Nand Kishore Yadav (Patna Sahib) Ramnarayan Mandal (Banka), besides JD(U) minister Damodar Raut.
While JD(U) is contesting from 25,ally BJP is contesting in the remaining 17 seats.
RJD has fielded candidates in 25, and ally LJP in 17.
The Congress and BSP have fielded candidates in all the constituencies. The CPI-ML (L) is contesting 15 seats, CPI (13) and CPI-M (six).
In 2005 October, an upsurge was witnessed in favour of the NDA, while the RJD-LJP combine was halved in each district.
The poor performance of the RJD was the result of the LJP of Ramvilas Paswan ploughing a separate furrow and substantially split the minority votes of Lalu Prasad.
Out of 42 constituencies, ten — Alauli, Suryagarha, Tarapur, Jamalpur, Katoria, Belhar, Sikandara, Jamui, Jhajha and Chakai, are Maoist-hit with polling to take place between 7:00 am and 3:00 pm.