Patna, Agency
Amid three tier security arrangements and orders for strict surveillance, the stage is set for the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections to be held on Thursday, when 3.75 crore voters will exercise their franchise across 121 constituencies to decide the political destiny of 1,314 candidates.
The Election Commission and state authorities have made extensive preparations to ensure peaceful, fair, and transparent polling under a multi-layered security arrangement including web casting from all polling stations.
Polling will be conducted from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., except at certain sensitive locations in Munger, Tarapur, Jamalpur, Simri Bakhtiyarpur, Mahishi, and Surajgarha, where voting will end an hour earlier at 5 p.m. due to security considerations.
Director General of Police Vinay Kumar said here today that comprehensive arrangements have been made to ensure free and peaceful polling across all districts.
He said that during the polling the interstate borders would remain sealed and the security personnel would keep a hawk's eye on every movement across the state. In addition to this the Indo Nepal International border and the state's fringes shared by Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh would remain under strict surveillance.
Kumar said that over 1,650 companies of security forces have been deployed, supported by advanced surveillance systems and rapid response units.
A central control room has been established to monitor the situation statewide, while CCTV cameras have been installed at polling stations and critical locations.
The DGP said 35,000 women police personnel have been deployed to ensure the safety of women voters and to manage polling duties in female-dominated booths.
Mounted police units have been stationed for crowd control, and additional companies have been assigned to sensitive constituencies.
The DGP emphasised that criminal elements and candidates with criminal backgrounds are under close surveillance through special video monitoring teams.
In Patna district, District Magistrate S.M. Thyagarajan announced a three-tier security system to ensure smooth and fair voting across all 14 constituencies.
He said that extra attention is being given to Mokama and Baadh, both marked as highly sensitive areas. Senior administrative and police officers have been specially deployed in these regions, while Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have intensified riverine patrols in the Taal and Diara areas.
The move follows heightened tensions in Mokama after the murder of a Jan Suraj campaign worker. JDU candidate and former MLA Anant Singh was arrested along with several associates in connection with the incident, prompting the administration to tighten security and surveillance in the constituency.
Election Commission officials said that the entire polling process will be live-streamed to guarantee transparency. The Commission has appointed 348 observers, including 121 general observers, 18 police observers, and 33 expenditure observers, to oversee the first phase of voting.
This phase will witness several heavyweight contests. From the ruling NDA, Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, along with 15 cabinet ministers are in the fray.
Prominent names include Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Shravan Kumar, Mangal Pandey, Madan Sahni, Nitin Naveen, Maheshwar Hazari, Ratnesh Sada, Kedar Prasad Gupta, Surendra Mehta, Sanjay Saraogi, Dr. Sunil Kumar, Jivesh Kumar, Raju Singh, and Krishna Kumar Mantoo.
From the Grand Alliance, key figures include Tejaswi Yadav, Awdh Bihari Choudhary, Dr. Ramanand Yadav, Veena Devi, Lalit Kumar Yadav, Vijendra Choudhary, Renu Kushwaha, Khesari Lal Yadav, Alok Mehta, Bhai Virendra, and Anirudh Yadav.
Other prominent independent or smaller party candidates include Tej Pratap Yadav, Shivdeep Lande, Anand Mishra, V.K. Ravi, Jayprakash Singh, Pushpam Priya Choudhary, and R.K. Mishra.
In this phase, JDU is contesting 57 seats, BJP 48, LJP (Ram Vilas) 13, and RLM two. The RJD is contesting 71 seats, Congress 24, CPI(ML) 14, VIP six, CPI five, and CPI(M) three. The Jan Suraj Party, led by Prashant Kishor, has fielded 118 candidates in this phase.
A total of 3,75,13,302 voters including 1.98 crore men, 1.76 crore women, and 758 third-gender voters are eligible to cast their votes at 45,341 polling stations. There are 5.24 lakh voters aged above 80 years and 6,736 centenarian voters.
In the 2020 Assembly elections, out of these 121 seats, RJD won 42, BJP 32, JDU 23, Congress eight, CPI(ML) seven, VIP four, CPI and CPI(M) two each, and LJP one seat.
The Bihar Assembly elections for 243 seats will be held in two phases November 6 and 11. Counting of votes will take place on November 14, and the entire election process will conclude by November 16.
The current Assembly’s tenure ends on November 22 this year.
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