Bihar Elections 2025: Plurals Chief Pushpam Priya Trails Heavily in Darbhanga as BJP’s Saraogi Maintains Dominant Lead

Patna/Darbhanga: Pushpam Priya Choudhary — the Plurals Party founder known for her vow to keep her face masked until she wins a seat — is facing a major setback in the Darbhanga Assembly constituency, where she is trailing by a massive margin as counting continues for the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025.

After 14 rounds of counting, BJP’s Sanjay Saraogi has built a strong, uninterrupted lead. Saraogi, who held the seat in 2020, now stands ahead of Umesh Sahani of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) by over 22,000 votes, while Pushpam Priya is trailing Saraogi by more than 58,000 votes, according to election officials overseeing the count.

---

A Difficult Second Attempt for Plurals Party

Pushpam Priya entered Bihar politics in 2020 with the promise of introducing a “new political grammar,” centred around modern governance and a break from traditional caste-led alignments. Despite the attention her unconventional campaign received in that election cycle, her party lost all 148 seats it contested.

In 2025, she scaled up her ambition — fielding candidates across all 243 constituencies under the Plurals Party’s ‘whistle’ symbol. True to her symbolic style, she has campaigned exclusively in black attire and a mask, declaring that she would unveil her face only after securing an electoral victory.

But the Darbhanga numbers suggest that the party still struggles to convert visibility into votes.

---

A Political Legacy, but a Challenging Battle

Though she positions herself as an outsider to Bihar’s legacy-driven politics, Pushpam Priya comes from a family deeply connected to the state’s political history.

Her father, Vinod Kumar Choudhary, served as a JDU legislator.
Her grandfather, Professor Umakant Choudhary, was a founding member of the Samata Party and a close associate of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Her uncle, Vinay Kumar Choudhary, won the Benipur seat in the 2020 Assembly elections on a JDU ticket.

Professionally, Pushpam Priya holds master’s degrees from the University of Sussex and the London School of Economics. Before launching Plurals, she worked as a consultant in Bihar’s tourism and health departments, experiences she has often highlighted to frame her vision for development-led governance.

---

Darbhanga: A Stronghold Holding Steady

The Darbhanga seat has been a bastion for the Bharatiya Janata Party, and early results indicate that sentiment remains unchanged. Saraogi’s widening lead suggests voter confidence in the incumbent, while Umesh Sahani and Pushpam Priya appear locked in a battle for a distant second and third position.

Election analysts say that despite Pushpam Priya’s high-profile social media presence and reform-centric messaging, ground mobilisation continues to be the Plurals Party’s biggest challenge.

Results will be formally announced once all rounds of counting conclude.