Third phase of the Bihar 2020 elections: the vote will take place in 78 seats today (Archive)
Patna / New Delhi:
The third and final phase of voting in the Bihar assembly election is underway in 78 constituencies voting to elect their next government. At least 1,204 candidates compete in the final phase. Some of the prominent candidates in this phase are Niraj Kumar Singh of the BJP in the Chhatapur seat, cousin of actor Sushant Singh Rajput; Congressional candidate in Bihariganj, Subhashini Sharad Yadav, daughter of former Union Minister Sharad Yadav; Sarairanjan’s candidate from Janata Dal United, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who is also the president of the Bihar assembly, and Suresh Kumar Sharma from BJP, the minister of Urban Development competing from Muzaffarpur. Voting is also being conducted for the seat of Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha, where a by-election was necessary due to the death of MP JD (U) Baidyanath Mahato.
Here’s your 10-point cheat sheet for this great story:
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JD (U) ‘s bid to retain Valmiki Nagar’s parliamentary seat by introducing Baidyanath Mahato’s son Sunil Kumar is challenged by Congressional candidate Pravesh Kumar Mishra, a journalist turned politician. Like Valmiki Nagar, the 78 segments of the assembly spread over 19 districts are also in northern Bihar, as the areas that fall north of the Ganges in the state are called.
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Many of these areas fall in the Kosi-Seemanchal region, where the contest between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Grand Alliance will take place under the shadow of the “Owaisi factor”, given that the AIMIM has presented candidates in many of Muslim-dominated seats here, and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi had run a relatively large campaign.
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The Kosi-Seemanchal region is also the main area of influence for former MP Pappu Yadav, whose Jan Adhikar Party seeks to make his presence felt and prove a point for the Rashtriya Janata Dal, as both gain the support of the most populous members of the state. community, the Yadavs.
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As in the previous two phases, Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidates are competing for a series of seats this time, threatening JD (U). While the NDA seemed secure until a few months ago, the ruling coalition seemed to have taken a more cautious note as calls to voters came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar towards the end of the campaign.
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The RJD, once seen as an election winning machine in Bihar, hopes to return, excited by the response its chief ministerial candidate, Tejashwi Yadav, 31, received in his more than two dozen demonstrations. The RJD is part of an alliance that includes its longtime ally, Congress, as well as left-wing parties.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have asked people to vote in large numbers in the final phase. Prime Minister Modi, who attended 12 demonstrations during the campaign, had presented an open letter to the people of the state on Thursday saying he “needed” Nitish Kumar in the state for Bihar’s development to continue unhindered.
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Some 2.34 million voters spread across the assembly’s 78 constituencies will vote today. The total number of members of the Bihar assembly is 243. The percentage of votes in the second phase out of 94 seats was 55.70%. Votes will be counted on November 10.
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In the second phase, held on November 3, 94 seats were up for election, some of which were strongholds of the BJP in northern Bihar. Key candidates included Tejashwi Yadav and his brother Tej Pratap Yadav.
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Despite warnings from “extreme cynics” about the holding of the Bihar assembly elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation so far was reasonably good with two voting phases completed, said Thursday the Chief Elections Commissioner Sunil Arora. “There was no shortage of skeptics, there was no shortage of cynics, there was no shortage of extreme cynics who were making apocalyptic predictions for us … But here we are so far in reasonably good shape,” he said.
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Due to the pandemic, nearly 60 countries had postponed elections. Later, countries like Sri Lanka, South Korea, Croatia and Mangolia held elections. The Electoral Commission carries out a meticulous planning of all the polls. But this time, the “new dimension” of the coronavirus created more challenges, the Chief Elections Commissioner said.
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