New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday, October 6, announced the dates for the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025. The polls will be held in two phases on November 6 & 11. The counting of votes will take place on November 14. The entire voting process will be completed by November 22.
During a press conference, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said that over 7.4 crore people are eligible to vote in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections including 14 lakh first-time voters.
The CEC asserted that the Bihar elections will be conducted in a transparent and peaceful manner.
"There are a total of 7.42 crore voters in Bihar, of which 3.92 crore are males and 3.5 crore are women. There are 14 lakh first-time voters and 4 lakh senior citizen voters," Kumar said at the press conference.
At least 14,000 voters in the state are aged above 100 years. A total of 90,712 polling stations are being set up in Bihar, the CEC said.
The CEC added that strict directives have been given to the administration "for zero tolerance to any violence and there is no scope for any threat to voters or candidates".
The state will witness a close contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal United alliance, and the Opposition's INDIA bloc comprising the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
In the 243-seat Bihar Assembly, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has 138 seats in the Bihar Assembly. Out of these, the saffron party has 84 seats, while the JDU has 48. The HAM(S) has four seats, and two were won by Independent candidates who later extended support to the NDA.
Meanwhile, primary opposition party, the RJD, has 71 MLAs in the assembly and the Congress bagged 17 seats in the 2020 polls.
