Bihar enters the crucial second phase of the assembly election on Friday when more than 86.13 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in 32 seats spread over six Maoist-hit districts. Over 8.6 million voters are eligible to vote in this phase which would test the fate of 456 candidates, including 32 women.
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The biggest challenge for the election commission is the security arrangement of all 9,119 booths going to polls on Friday for the second phase of Bihar polls.
12 Constituencies would witness voting till 4 PM, while 11 others would have balloting only till 3 PM, Additional Chief Electoral Officer R Lakshamanan said. In other nine constituencies – Ramgarh, Mohania, Bhabhua, Kargahar, Dinara, Nokha, Obra, Aurangabad and Gaya town – polling will begin at 7am and conclude at 5pm. In view of the security concerns, voting time has been curtailed by one hour and two hours in as many as 23 constituencies. HAM-S boss and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is fighting against JD(U) candidate and speaker Uday Narain Chaudhary in Imamganj. A total of 993 companies of Central paramilitary forces and state police have been deployed to ensure peaceful voting. Apart from recovery of IEDs in Gaya, Rohtas and Kaimur districts, no major incident of Maoist violence has been reported in the run up to second phase of election as well.
Manjhi is also trying his luck from Makhdumpur seat in Jehanabad too. These figures, however, nearly flipped during the Lok Sabha elections past year, when the NDA won 29 out of the 32 assembly segments, leaving only two for the grand alliance.
From the NDA, half of the seats in this phase are being contested by nominees of the BJP’s allies, Lok Janshakti Party, HAM and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party. The BJP has put up candidates in the rest 16 seats.
Patna: Maoists, it seems, have developed a soft corner for chief minister Nitish Kumar after he joined hands with RJD and Congress to form Mahagathbandhan.
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But the BJP is confident of the overwhelming support of upper castes along with sections of OBCs and EBCs along with Dalits, mainly Manjhi’s castemen Mushahars as well as Paswans, who owe allegiance to LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan, another BJP ally.
