Patna: After high pitch bitter campaigning which saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the rival camps led by Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad holding a string of rallies, the stage is set for voting in 49 seats of Bihar Assembly elections in the first phase of the five-phase poll tomorrow. Additional Chief Electoral Officer R Lakshamanan said that a total of 1,35,72,339 electorate are eligible to decide the fate of 583 candidates for the 49 seats in 10 districts in the first phase of elections.
Lakshamanan said voting would start from 7 AM. While in majority of seats polling would end at 5 PM, in some constituencies time has been cut short to 4 PM and 3 PM on the basis of law and order situation feedback in the
Naxal-hit areas, he said. Out of a general electoroate of 1,35,72,339 there are 72,37,253 men, 63,17,602 women and 405 of third gender.
Lakshamanan said out of a total of 583 candidates in the field, there are 54 women nominees. BSP, which does not have much influence in Bihar, has fielded a maximum of 41 candidates among the 49 seats. BJP has fielded 27 candidates in the 49 seats followed by JD(U) 24, RJD 17, LJP 13, Congress 8 and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party 6 and Hindusthani Awam Morcha 3.
Left front is trying to make significant inroads in the poll on the basis of combined strength of six parties – CPI, CPI-M, CPI-ML, Forward Block, SUCI (C) and RSP. While CPI has fielded 25 candidates, CPI-M has fielded 12 in the first phase.
Lakshamanan said tight security arrangements have been put in place to ensure peaceful polling in 13212 polling stations in the first phase. Bihar will go for polls in a five phase election from October 12 and end on November 5. Counting of votes will take place on November 8. The term of the current 243-member Bihar Assembly expires on November 29.
There would be 80,000 to 90,000 polling personnel. Every polling station would be manned by the Central Para Military Force, he said adding drone and helicopter would also be put in service. Voting in 49 seats would take place in the backdrop of high decibel campaign which ended on Saturday evening. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah headed the BJP poll blitzkreig. Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, J P Nadda joined state leaders Sushil Kumar Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav to spread BJP message among people.
Rival campaigns revolved around Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad. Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi came to the state for one day each to add muscle to the secular alliance prospects.
Far away in Bhagalpur, the buzz in political circles is that the rivalry between former MP Shahnawaz Hussain and Buxar MP Ashwini Choubey has to do something with the decision of BJP leader Vijay Shah to jump into fray as an independent against party nominee Arjit Shashwat, Choubey’s son.
Such is the nervousness in BJP camp that party chief Amit Shah besides top state leaders like Sushil Modi have held talks with leaders of vaishya community, to which Shah belongs, to ensure that they back Shashwat in the urban constituency, considered a party bastion before Congress won from here in a by-poll in 2014.
Political watchers believe that NDA is not as strong in the eastern Bihar, which goes to polls tomorrow, besides Seemanchal as in other regions. BJP has traditionally not fielded candidates from a majority of 49 seats and even this time its allies LJP, RLSP and HAM are contesting on 22 of them.
Though leaders of RJD-JD(U)-Congress grand alliance claim that they have been better than their NDA rivals in candidate selection, the Pappu card threatens to mar their prospects at many places.
Expelled RJD leader Pappu Yadav has tactically put up Muslim and Yadav candidates, many of whom from RJD and JD(U) who were angry over denial of tickets to them, at several places. In Nathnagar, former MLA from RJD Abu Kaisar has been fielded by Pappu Yadav, making the battle harder for sitting JD(U) MLA Ajay Mandal.
In a loose alliance with Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Pappu Yadav is touring the region extensively with the grand alliance leaders accusing him of working to harm their chances at BJP’s behest. He is clearly doing it do harm us. How much he will succeed is not sure, Vinay Sharma, a local Congress leader, said.
