Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Will JD(U) emerge victorious in Kargahar constituency again?

In the 2015 elections, Bashisth Singh of the JD(U) won from the Kargahar constituency by a majority of 57,018 votes and a vote share of over 32%. The runner-up was Birendra K of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and secured 44,111 votes with a vote share of nearly 25%.

One of the constituencies, which will vote in the first phase of polling in the Bihar assembly elections on Wednesday, is Kargahar. Top contenders for this year’s assembly election include Bashisth Singh of the Janata Dal(United), Rakesh Kumar Singh of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Uday Pratap Singh of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Santosh Kumar Mishra of the Congress.

The JD(U)-NDA alliance with chief minister Nitish Kumar has been ruling Bihar since 2017 and is looking for a second term as results of all phases would be declared on November 10. (HT Photo)

In the 2015 elections, Bashisth Singh of the JD(U) won from the Kargahar constituency by a majority of 57,018 votes and a vote share of over 32%. The runner-up was Birendra K of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and secured 44,111 votes with a vote share of nearly 25%. Alok Kumar, who was an Independent candidate, stood third.

According to the 2011 census, the entire population of 450,539 in Kargahar, which falls under the Sasaram parliamentary constituency, belongs to the rural section. The Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) ratio is 20.41 and 0.28. The electorate strength in the previous election stood at 297,018 with a voter turnout of 59%. Karaghar out of the 243 assembly constituencies in the state stands at 209th position.

Less than 24 hours are left before Bihar goes into the first phase of voting. A total of 71 constituencies will witness polling as political parties across the spectrum have fielded their best candidates to ensure they rule their constituency for the next five years. The JD(U)-NDA alliance with chief minister Nitish Kumar has been ruling Bihar since 2017 and is looking for a second term as results of all phases would be declared on November 10.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak which has infected over 7.9 million people across India, The Election Commission of India (ECI) has laid down guidelines to facilitate the process of voting amid the crisis. Some of these include mandatory sanitization of the polling booth before voting, provision of facemask and gloves to voters and ensuring social distancing is maintained at all times.

Polling in Phase 2 and Phase 3 will happen on November 3 and November 7 respectively. Phase 2 has the highest number of constituencies at 94 and the third and the final phase of this election comprises 78 constituencies.