"After today's official announcement by the Election Commissioners, Bihar elections have officially begun. Model Code of Conduct has been implemented... We need a referee in the form of the Election Commission, who does not side with any party,” said Manoj Jha, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP in Rajya Sabha.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday got the ball rolling for the Bihar assembly elections. Voting for 243 seats will be held in two phases, November 6 and 11, while the counting of votes will be done on November 14. Sounding the poll bugle on Monday, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said the entire election process in the state would be concluded by November 16, nearly a week before the term of the assembly ends on November 22. The Model Code of Conduct is in place the moment elections were announced on Monday evening.
In addition to Bihar, bypolls for eight seats spread over Jammu-Kashmir (Badgaum, Nagrota), Odisha (Nuapada), Jharkhand (Ghatsila), Mizoram (Dampa), Punjab (Tarn Taran), Telangana (Jubilee Hill) and Rajasthan (Anta) will be held on November 11. Counting of these elections too will be held on November 14 along with Bihar.
This will be the first assembly election to be held under Gyanesh Kumar’s tenure as the CEC. He has already been put to test by the Opposition that has alleged the poll body of “Vote Chori” accusing mass additions and deletions in the voters lists in various states to swing poll outcomes in the favour of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies.
"After today's official announcement by the Election Commissioners, Bihar elections have officially begun. Model Code of Conduct has been implemented... We need a referee in the form of the Election Commission, who does not side with any party,” said Manoj Jha, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP in Rajya Sabha.
This will also be the first polls to be conducted in the state after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that has generated a lot of controversy. While urging voters to check their names in the fresh voter list released on September 30, the CEC said citizens with names missing can get it rectified till ten days before nominations.
In Bihar’s first phase, 121 assembly seats will go for polls while in the second phase 122 seats will witness elections. The gazette notifications for the two phases will be issued on October 10 and 13, respectively while the last dates for filing nominations is October 17 and 20, respectively.
The political parties in Bihar during a meeting with the CEC on Saturday had suggested holding polls in the state in a single phase or in two.
Out of the 243 seats in Bihar, 38 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and two for Scheduled Tribes. The state has 7.43 crore voters listed out of which 3.92 crore are men and 3.50 crore are women. There are 14,000 voters above the age of 100 and 14.01 lakh persons listed as first time voters, the CEC said. The Election Commission has set up 90, 712 polling booths with 1200 voters listed at each. Giving some interesting facts about the state election machinery, the CEC said patrolling by police will be conducted using horses in 250 polling stations in the `Diara’ region along the river beds while the patrolling parties will go through boats on 197 polling stations.
The CEC said that the state administration has been categorically told to be impartial and there should be “absolutely zero tolerance to any violence.”
“No scope for any kind of intimidation/threat to voters and candidates will be tolerated. Adequate CAPF (paramilitary forces) deployment in the state will be done in advance for confidence building measures. All officers should act in an absolutely impartial way and be easily accessible to all stakeholders. They have to ensure all grievances and complaints of parties are responded to appropriately. Officials have been told to respond to fake news in a timely manner and there will be social media monitoring teams at district level to counter misinformation. There will be strict vigil across different check points against any illegal movement of drugs, liquor etc,” Gyanesh Kumar said.
He added that over 7,000 Booth Level Officers and several Booth level Agents appointed by the political parties have been trained in advance to handle Bihar polls. Besides, special training sessions were conducted for Bihar Police on law-and order preparedness during elections.
