The high-voltage Bihar Assembly polls will be held in five phases. The first phase will take place on October 12 and the last phase on November 5 with the results to be out on November 8, three days before Diwali. The new Assembly has to be in place before November 29, the date when the present Assembly expires.
Announcing the poll schedule, the Election Commission on Wednesday said that polls to the 243-member Assembly will be held in five phases across 62,779 polling stations, of which some are sensitive due to Naxal violence in 22 districts.
The phase-wise polling to be held on October 12, 16, 28, November 1 and 5 was decided following extensive consultations held by the Election Commission with the Centre, political parties in the election fray and considering the festival season in the State with Dusshera falling on October 22 and Diwali and Chhath Puja on November 8 & 14 respectively.
Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said, “The very designing of the poll schedule and sequencing of multi-phase elections and choice of constituencies for each phase had to follow the logic of force availability and force management.”
While both the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance and the BJP expressed confidence that they will emerge victorious, the former is not happy with the staggered polls claiming such staggered polls are influenced by money power.
BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said the EC’s announcement of the schedule for the five-phased Bihar polls are “dates for the departure of Nitish Kumar” and it was virtually the announcement of the saffron party coming to power.
On the other hand, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is seeking a third term, was optimistic that people from all sections of the State will again vote for his Government based on the work he has done in the last ten years. Kumar said he is confident that those who are happy with his Government’s performance will vote for the grand alliance.
“We are working day and night and people remember this very much. I am fully confident that people of all sections will vote for us,” he said.
JD(U) president Sharad Yadav said the grand alliance will win with massive majority, but blamed the Centre for not providing paramilitary forces to ensure that the elections are held in one phase.
RJD chief lalu Prasad said that the alliance was fully prepared for the polls. Though he welcomed the EC’s announcement, lalu felt that the five-phased polls made it a long exercise and it would have been better had it been conducted in one phase.
Congress general secretary CP Joshi welcomed the announcement hoping that the polls would be held in a free, fair and impartial manner.
He said that the Bihar polls is a tussle between a hawabaaz PM (PM resorting to empty talk) and kamkazi CM (competent CM).
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who also hails from Bihar, said the BJP was happy that the results will be announced before Diwali as the people of the State can celebrate the festival with "promise" of good governance, which is poll plank of his party.
In the first phase, 49 constituencies have been included comprising districts of Samastipur, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur among others. For the second phase, 32 constituencies across six districts have been selected which includes Gaya, Aurangabad, and Rohtas. The third phase for 50 seats across six districts will include Patna, Nalanda (the home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar), Vaishali and Saran. In the fourth and fifth phases, the EC has earmarked 55 and 57 Assembly seats covering mostly the north and north-east districts of the State.
While political parties welcomed the election schedule, both Centre and State Governments did not lose the last opportunity to announce hike in dearness allowance to Government employees hours before the Model Code of Conduct came into force with the announcement of polls by EC by 3 pm.
Bihar witnesses a direct contest between the NDA combine with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the charge on one hand and the JD(U)-RJD-Congress combination on the other led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD chief lalu Prasad and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The State has already witnessed a windfall of promises and poll packages with Prime Minister Modi announcing a Rs 1.65 lakh crore mega package for Bihar to woo the 6.68 crore strong voter base.