With vote-counting day approaching, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav sat down with every Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate contesting the Graduate and Teacher Constituency elections to the Bihar Legislative Council on Saturday, 24 October 2026 — and emerged projecting unmistakable confidence.

Posting after the meeting, Tejashwi wrote in Hindi: 'Snatak aur shikshak nirvachan kshetra ke sabhi RJD pratyashiyon se aaj mulaqat mein feedback liya tatha matganana ki taiyariyon ke sandarbh mein charcha hui.' — 'Today I met all RJD candidates from the Graduate and Teacher constituencies, took their feedback, and discussed preparations for the vote count.' He then sharpened the attack: 'RJD's outstanding electoral performance has left the ruling side frustrated and dejected. Our candidates are winning.'

What Graduate and Teacher seats mean for Bihar's upper house

The Bihar Legislative Council draws members from several functional constituencies, among them graduates and teachers — voters who register separately and elect their own representatives under constitutional provisions. These seats carry symbolic heft beyond their numbers: parties treat them as a barometer of educated, locally influential opinion, and a strong showing in council polls feeds the larger political narrative heading into assembly cycles.

For RJD — Bihar's principal opposition party built on a coalition of backward-caste and minority voters — performing well in teacher and graduate seats would signal a broadening of its appeal beyond its traditional base.

Pre-count psychology and the rival coalition

Tejashwi's move fits a well-worn Bihar playbook: before counting day, opposition leaders convene candidate gatherings, project momentum, and frame any ruling-coalition anxiety as evidence of impending defeat. The target is Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's alliance, which has dominated Bihar's administrative apparatus, and whose electoral machinery Bihar opposition leaders routinely describe as a structural challenge.

By meeting all candidates in one session, Tejashwi also performs a coordination function — aligning count-day agents, reviewing booth-level data, and signalling to party workers that the leadership is fully invested in the result.

What the count will decide

Until official results are declared, the claim that 'our candidates are winning' remains exactly that — a pre-count claim designed to energise RJD's ground machinery and unsettle opponents. The actual tallies from these limited-franchise constituencies, where registered graduates and teachers vote in pools far smaller than general constituencies, will either validate or deflate the confidence on display today.

Either outcome will land fast: council counts are typically brisk, and post-result statements from both RJD and the ruling alliance are expected to sharpen Bihar's opposition-versus-government narrative in the weeks ahead.