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Bihar Assembly Election 2020: RJD’s Shamim Ahmed faces triangular fight in Narkatiya
In 2015, the RJD’s Dr Shamim Ahmed defeated the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) candidate Sant Kumar Kushwaha by a margin of 19,982 votes and won the seat.
Narkatiya, an assembly constituency seat in Bihar, will go to polls in the third and last phase of state elections on November 7. It is a part of the Purvi Champaran district and this is the third assembly election that Narkatiya is going to hold since it came into existence in 2008 after the delimitation.
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Narakatiya is among the 81 seats won by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the 2015 assembly election. The RJD’s Dr Shamim Ahmed defeated the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) candidate Sant Kumar Kushwaha by a margin of 19,982 votes and won the seat. Ahmed had received as many as 75,118 votes while Kushwaha gathered 55,136. The number of None of the Above (NOTA) votes stood at 8,938. During the 2010 polls, JD(U) candidate Shyam Bihari Prasad had defeated LJP’s candidate Yasmin Sabir by 7,688 votes.
This year, the Janata Dal(United), fighting under the National Democratic Alliance banner, has fielded Prasad against Ahmed. While from the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Sonu Kumar is contesting for Narkatiya, a seat which faces the issues of lack of development, education and a health system.
In the last assembly election in 2015, there were 256,922 registered voters, out of which 63.65 per cent had exercised their franchise. As per data, the voting percentage in this seat has increased in 2015 compared to 2010, with women voting more than men. In the 2020 Bihar assembly polls, there are more than 280,000 registered voters including 152,545 men, 135,158, women and four third gender voters.
The Bihar assembly elections are the first major elections to take place after Covid-19 pandemic broke out in March. The elections are being held amid strict Covid-19 guidelines mandated by the Election Commission of India.
The voting is being held in three phases. The first phase of voting took place on October 28 and the second was held on November 3. The third and final phase of voting will be held on November 7. Counting of votes and announcement of results will take place on November 10.
