Bihar Assembly polls to be held in three phases from 28 Oct to 7 Nov; counting on 10 Nov

The Election Commission on Friday announced the poll schedule for Bihar Assembly elections, which will be held in three phases between 28 October and 7 November.

The Assembly polls will be conducted on 28 October, 3 and 7 November. While the counting of votes will take place on 10 November, said Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.

For phase one on 28 October, 71 constituencues in 16 districts will be covered

1) Date of issue of gazette notification: 1 October

2) Last date of nomination: 8 October

3) Scrutiny of nomination: 9 October

4) Last date of withdrawal of candidature: 12 October

5) Date of polling: 28 October

For second one on 3 November, 94 constituencies in 17 districts will go to polls

1) Date of issue of gazette notification: 9 October

2) Last date of nomination: 16 October

3) Scrutiny of nomination: 17 October

4) Last date of withdrawal of candidature: 19 October

5) Date of polling: 3 November

In the third phase on 7 November, 78 constituencies in 15 districts will be covered

1) Date of issue of gazette notification: 13 October

2) Last date of nomination: 20 October

3) Scrutiny of nomination: 21 October

4) Last date of withdrawal of candidature: 23 October

5) Date of polling: 7 November

Announcing the COVID-19 guidelines, Arora said polling time has been increased by one hour to avoid crowding of polling stations and allow free movement of voters.

"It'll be held from 7 am-6 pm, instead of 7 am-5 pm earlier. However, this will not be applicable to Left-wing affected areas," said Arora.

"All elections meetings will be monitored by-election and health officials. Public gatherings can take place following social distancing norms. The District Election Officers will decide on the number of people allowed in such gatherings," he further said.

The Chief Election Commissioner said that the poll body has held several interactions with CEO of Bihar and some of the arrangements being made for assembly elections amid COVID-19 are as follows:

1) 7 lakh sanitizers
2) 46 lakh masks
3) 6 lakh PPE kits
4) 7.6 lakh units of face shields
5) 23 lakh unit of hand gloves

Per polling station will allow 1,000 voters to facilitate social distancing guidelines. "This will raise the number of polling stations to over 1 lakh in 2020 from 65,337 in 2015 poll," said Arora.

The total electors in Bihar in 2015 was 67 million. The number has increased to 72 million

The term of the 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly comes to an end on 29 November. Of the total strength, 38 seats are reserved for SCs and two for STs.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who leads a coalition with the BJP, will fight for a fourth term in these polls.

In the last Assembly elections in 2015, the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress had contested together under the Grand Alliance and formed the government with an absolute majority.

However, the JD(U) later broke away from the alliance and formed the government in Bihar by joining hands with the BJP.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking to postpone the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With inputs from PTI

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