Ritlal Yadav or Ritlal Ray is a leader of RJD who won the Bihar Legislative Council election in July 2015 as an independent candidate. Ritlal was in jail in connection with multiple criminal cases, including murder charges. Ritlal is accused in over 33 cases. He was a former Member of Legislative Council (MLC), the post, to which he was elected in 2016. He was incarcerated in Beur Jail until August 2020. However he was then released from the jail on bail. Ritlal Yadav defeated BJP's Asha Devi Sinha in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections.

The Bihar Legislative Assembly election was held in three phases through October–November to elect members to the Seventeenth Bihar Legislative Assembly. The term of the previous Sixteenth Legislative Assembly of Bihar ended on 29 November 2020.