Campaigning for the first phase of Bihar assembly elections ended at 5 pm on Tuesday. In the first phase, voting will be held on 121 assembly seats in 18 districts on November 6. With the end of the campaign, the election campaign has also come to an end with the major alliances preparing for a tough contest in the first phase. These seats fall under six of the nine administrative divisions of the state. Of the 121 seats to be voted in the first phase, in the last elections the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won 60 seats, while the Grand Alliance had won 61 seats. In this way, there will be a tough competition between the two alliances in the first phase. It is a big challenge for NDA to gain lead in this phase. It will be equally important for the grand alliance to maintain or even better its previous performance.
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The second phase of assembly elections will be held on November 11 and counting of votes will take place on November 14. The Election Commission has completed all preparations to ensure peaceful and fair voting. The Commission has directed all observers to create a festive atmosphere at the polling stations so that voters come forward to vote in large numbers. The Commission has implemented technological innovations such as 100% webcasting at the booth, new Voter Information Slip (VIS) facility and voting reporting through EVM Net App. For the first phase, 121 general, 18 police and 33 expenditure observers have been appointed. Keeping in view the security arrangements, special surveillance arrangements have been made in rural areas. In terms of constituencies, Digha assembly constituency has the highest number of voters registered at 4,57,657, while Barbigha has the least number of voters registered at 2,31,998. In terms of area, Bankipur assembly constituency is the smallest (16.239 square kilometres) and Suryagarha is the largest (62.247 square kilometres).
According to the Election Commission, in the first phase, voting will be held in Madhepura, Saharsa, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Khagaria, Munger, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Nalanda, Patna, Bhojpur and Buxar districts. The Election Commission has reduced the voting time by one hour in six assembly seats. Voting will be held from 7 am to 5 pm at these 2135 polling stations. These include Simri Bakhtiyarpur (410 booths), Mahishi (361 booths), Tarapur (412 booths), Munger (404 booths), Jamalpur (492 booths) and Suryagarha (56 booths). This decision has been taken on the basis of sensitivity of these areas, distance from the block headquarters and suggestions of the local administration. Voting time at 43,206 booths of remaining 115 seats will be from 7 am to 6 pm. A total of 3 crore 75 lakh 13 thousand 302 voters will exercise their franchise in the first phase. These include 1 crore 98 lakh 35 thousand 325 men, 1 crore 76 lakh 77 thousand 219 women and 758 third gender voters. A total of 45,341 booths have been made for voting, of which 45,324 will be main booths and 17 auxiliary booths. In the first phase, the fate of many popular candidates will be captured in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
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These include Grand Alliance’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav, Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha, folk singer Maithili Thakur, Bhojpuri film star Khesari Lal Yadav, Janashakti Janata Dal’s Tej Pratap Yadav, Janata Dal (United) state president Umesh Kushwaha and Bhola Yadav. Everyone’s eyes are also on Alinagar seat, where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded folk singer Maithili Thakur as its candidate. He is contesting against Vinod Mishra of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). At the same time, the fate of JD(U) candidate Anant Singh, who was recently arrested in the case of murder of Dular Chand Yadav in Mokama, is also to be decided in this phase. In the first phase, the fate of 16 ministers of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar government will also be captured in EVMs. These include 11 ministers of BJP and 5 ministers of JD(U).
Health Minister Mangal Pandey (Siwan) from BJP quota, Nitin Naveen from Bankipur, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary from Tarapur, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha from Lakhisarai, Urban Development Minister Jivesh Mishra from Darbhanga’s Jale, Revenue Minister Sanjay Saraogi from Darbhanga Urban, Panchayati Raj Minister Kedar Prasad Gupta from Kudhni, Tourism Minister Raju Kumar from Sahebganj, Information and Technology Minister Krishna Kumar Mantu from Amanour, Environment Minister Sunil from Bihar Sharif. Kumar and Sports Minister Surendra Mehta are contesting from Bachhwara. At the same time, the five ministers of JD(U) include Water Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (Sarai Ranjan), Rural Development Minister Shravan Kumar from Nalanda, Social Welfare Minister Madan Sahni from Bahadurpur, Information and Public Relations Minister Maheshwar Hazari from Kalyanpur and Minister Ratnesh Sada from Sonbarsa. Talking about alliances, in the first phase, 57 candidates from JD(U), 48 from BJP, 13 from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and 2 from Rashtriya Lok Morcha are in the fray from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). On behalf of the Grand Alliance, 71 candidates from RJD, 24 from Congress and 14 from Left parties are in the fray. Apart from this, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) are contesting on six seats each, Marxist Communist Party (CPI-M) on three seats and Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) on two seats. 118 candidates of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party are also trying their luck in this phase.