As the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is marching towards a resounding electoral victory in Bihar, Maithili Thakur, the youngest BJP candidate, has grabbed eyeballs by making a stellar entry into the state’s politics. Leading on the Alinagar assembly seat by a sizeable margin, surpassing RJD heavyweight Binod Mishra, the 25-year-old folk singer is set to become the youngest MLA in the Bihar Assembly. She was given a ticket by the BJP weeks before the Assembly polls. Before Thakur, 26-year-old Tauseef Alam became the youngest MLA in the state in 2005, followed by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who was also elected at the age of 26 in 2015.
Thakur’s win will also be significant because she will be the first BJP candidate to win the Alinagar assembly seat, which has a substantial Muslim population. Thakur, a trained Indian classical singer, hails from Benipatti in the Madhubani district of Bihar, and rose to fame with her devotional songs. She had an unconventional education as she was home-schooled until class 5. Because of her singing abilities, she was granted a music scholarship to Bal Bhavan International School, which provided her with an opportunity to pursue academics and training together.
She also featured in several prominent music reality shows, including Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs and Indian Idol Junior, but failed to get past the initial rounds. A major turning point in her singing career came in 2017, when she finished as the first runner-up on a reality show called Rising Star.
People got to see her bold side when she took a stand after the mysterious and unfortunate death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and refused to work in Bollywood, citing an unjust culture in the industry as the reason. She maintained a distance from the industry for a long time until 2024, when she finally made her entry into the Hindi film industry with the song ‘Kisi Roz’ for the movie Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha.
2021 marked another achievement in Maithili Thakur’s music career after she received the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, which is one of the country’s major honours for young performers. She was later named the State Icon of Bihar by the Election Commission, due to her positive cultural influence and connection to the state’s folk traditions. After an inspiring career in music, Maithili Thakur is now looking at a promising journey in Politics.
