The Janata Dal(United)-held Dinara is one of the seven assembly constituencies in Bihar’s Rohtas district and comes under the Buxar Lok Sabha constituency. While JD(U)’s Jai Kumar Singh has been the sitting MLA from Dinara since 2010, Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashwini Kumar Choubey is the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Buxar.

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In the 2015 assembly polls, Singh had defeated the now-former state BJP vice-president Rajendra Singh. Jai Kumar Singh secured 64,699 votes as against 62,008 for Rajendra Singh, thus winning by a slender margin of 2,691 votes.

(Read: BJP-CPI(ML) battle on the cards in Karakat as sitting RJD MLA misses out on ticket)

This seat will once again witness a battle between Jai Kumar Singh and Rajendra Singh. However, this time, Rajendra Singh will contest as a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidate after he joined the party on being denied ticket by the BJP.

Meanwhile, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan has fielded RJD’s Vijay Mandal as its candidate.

(Read: All you need to know about Gurua constituency)

Dinara is among 71 assembly constituencies which will go to polls in the first phase, on October 28. Polling for the second phase will take place on November 3 and that for the third and final phase on November 7. 94 assembly constituencies will vote in the second phase and 78 in the third phase.

Counting of votes, meanwhile, will take place on November 10.

Bihar CM and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar is the chief ministerial candidate of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Mahagathbandhan, meanwhile, has fielded RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav as its candidate for the state’s top post.

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