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Bihar Assembly Election 2020: PM Modi to wrap up his campaigning with two rallies today
The PM is scheduled to address the first rally at Hawai Adda Ground of Forbesganj in Araria at 11am and the one at Patel Ground, Saharsa, at 12.30pm
On his last day of campaigning for the three-phase Bihar assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two election rallies on Tuesday. Of these, one would be at Forbesganj in Seemanchal, a bastion of Muslims, and the other at Saharsa in Kosi -- a stronghold of Yadavs.
The PM is scheduled to address the first rally at Hawai Adda Ground of Forbesganj in Araria at 11am and the one at Patel Ground, Saharsa, at 12.30pm.
From the two rallies, the prime minister will be addressing 11,271, 262 electorate spread across 37 assembly segments -- 58, 68,421 males, 54, 32,430 female besides 411 belonging to other categories -- who will exercise their franchise at 16,185 polling stations during the third and last phase of the elections on November 7.
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The 37 assembly segments in the two regions fall under seven districts. Comprising the four districts of Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria, Seemanchal has 24 assembly seats while Kosi, with three districts -- Saharsa, Madhepura and Supaul -- has 13 assembly seats.
BJP has fielded 13 candidates while its ally JD(U) has fielded 20 in these two regions. VIP is contesting on 3 seats while one candidate of HAM-S is trying his luck in the last phase.
In Kosi, major seats have gone in favour of JD(U) which is contesting from 10 while BJP candidates are trying their luck on two and VIP is contesting just one seat. VIP president Mukesh Sahni is trying his luck on Simri Bakhtiyarpur seat while Lovely Anand, wife of incarcerated Rajput leader Anand Mohan, is giving a tough fight to BJP candidate Alok Ranjan Jha on Saharsa seat.
In Seemanchal, BJP has fielded 11 candidates while 10 seats have gone to JD(U). VIP has fielded two candidates while HAM-S has one.
In Seemanchal, where Muslims have a substantial population ranging from 30% to 70% in almost all of 24 constituencies, the BJP hopes the PM’s rally will help polarise Hindu votes in favour of NDA.
Similarly in Kosi, where JD(U) has a strong base, NDA hopes to reach out to voters of economically backward classes with PM’s rally.
In 2015 assembly polls, JD(U), then an ally of RJD and Congress, had captured 13 seats while RJD and Congress had grabbed 8 and 7 seats respectively while BJP had just managed to win seven seats only: six in Seemanchal and one in Kosi.
This time, the stakes are higher for NDA in both the regions as JD(U) and BJP are contesting the elections together.
“In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the PM had addressed a mammoth election rally at Forbesganj on the same ground and it had yielded bumper results, giving five out of six LS seats falling in Seemanchal and Kosi to NDA,” BJP’s Sikti MLA Vijay Mandal said, asserting, “The same is going to repeat in 2020 assembly polls.”
Polling on these assembly seats will be held on November 7 while votes will be counted on November 10.
