Two-phase Bihar Assembly polls from November 6, results on November 14

The Assembly elections in Bihar will be held in two phases, polling for which will be held on November 6 and 11 while the counting of votes will be done on November 14, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar announced on Monday.

“It is mandatory to complete counting of postal ballots before the last two rounds of counting of votes,” Kumar said at a press conference.

Meanwhile, byelections for eight seats, including Tarn Taran in Punjab and Budgam and Nagrota in Jammu & Kashmir, will be held on November 11, and the results will be declared on November 14.

The term of the current Assembly ends on November 22. Bihar has 243 constituencies, including two reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 38 for Scheduled Castes.

While 121 Assembly constituencies will go to the polls in the first phase, voting will be held in 122 Assembly constituencies in the second phase.

For the first phase, the last date of filing nominations is October 17 while the scrutiny will be held on October 18. The last date of withdrawal of candidature for first phase elections is October 20.

Similarly, for the second phase, the last date of filing nominations is October 20 while scrutiny will be held on October 21. The last date of withdrawal of candidature for the second phase elections is October 23.

The CEC said that over 7.4 crore people are eligible to vote in the Bihar Assembly elections including 14 lakh first-time voters.

He asserted that the Bihar elections will be conducted in a transparent and peaceful manner.

“There are a total of 7.42 crore voters in Bihar, of which 3.92 crore are males and 3.5 crore are women. There are 14 lakh first-time voters and 4 lakh senior citizen voters,” Kumar said.

At least 14,000 voters in the state are aged above 100 years. A total of 90,712 polling stations are being set up in Bihar, he said.

The CEC said strict directives have been given to the administration “for zero tolerance to any violence and there is no scope for any threat to voters or candidates”. — with PTI