RJD's senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti is contesting from Bihar's Pataliputra against BJP's Ram Kripal Yadav. This is the third time that the two are facing each other. In 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, Mr. Yadav had defeated Ms. Bharti. Mr. Yadav, who was once considered Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav's right-hand man quit the RJD in 2009 to join BJP, after he was denied RJD ticket to contest from Pataliputra. It is a high stakes battle for Ms. Bharti who has been trying to carve a niche for herself in a party where her younger brother Tejashwi has clearly established himself as his father's heir. This seat in many ways frames the battle of Bihar- where the RJD and BJP are in a head-on fight, with a disintegrating Janata Dal (United).