The Bihar assembly polls could be a month-long exercise spread over four to seven phases from mid-October, sources in the Election Commission said.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar during the inaugural function of Delhi Chapter of the Bihar Foundation in New Delhi. (Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)
The poll dates would be announced by mid-September as the Election Commission has started working on the schedule after its team visited the state last week, the sources said. The entire process is likely to conclude by November 20, nine days before a new assembly is notified.
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The ruling JD-U and the RJD will contest in 100 seats in the Bihar assembly polls and the Congress will fight for 40, the three parties have announced, formally unveiling an anti-BJP grand alliance in the election-bound state.
Political analysts have dubbed this election the “battle for Bihar” as a lot is at stake for chief minister Nitish Kumar-led RJD-JD(U)-Congress alliance and the NDA, which have already started a high-pitched campaign.
The Election Commission has ruled out the possibility of holding election in September-October because late monsoon rains could impede the exercise.
“We have time till November 29 to hold polls and there is no reason for us to advance the polls,” a central poll official said.
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Chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi and election commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti have started consultations within the commission and with other agencies on preparations.
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Chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi and election commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti have started consultations within the commission and with other agencies on preparations.
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Sources said the commission would consult the home and railway ministries, which facilitate security and transport, before fixing the dates.
As first steps, electoral rolls for Bihar have been notified and the state chief electoral officer was asked to initiate preparations, an official said.
The usual practice is to announce the dates 30-45 days after the rolls are notified. This gives election officers time to consider objections of political parties and voters about the voter list.
Maoist-affected areas could vote in the initial phases and the schedule might see a break to allow people to celebrate Diwali on November 11 and the six-day Chhath Puja.
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This election will be webcast for the first time and voters can locate their polling booth on phones.
Officials said the state election office have been told to set up more polling booths to avoid overcrowding. The commission will seek adequate security forces to conduct free and fair polls.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
