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The Election Commission today announced dates Bihar Assembly Elections 2020. Voting will take place in three phases on October 28th, November 3rd and 7th. The results for the 243-seat assembly will be announced on 10 November, nearly three weeks before the term of the assembly expires on 29 November.
“Elections entail large scale deployment of security forces. We have tried to minimise their movement over long distance. This is due to their fatigue as well as Covid-19. We have reduced the number of phases due to this,” said Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in the press conference.
Several countries have held elections amid the pandemic and USA will also be voting for its new President in early November. However, Arora said the Bihar Assembly polls are likely to be the largest elections conducted during the pandemic given there are with 72.9 million electors in the state.
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said public meetings in the run up of the election can only be held in designated locations identified by district authorities due to pandemic.
The NDA government led by Nitish Kumar takes on the proposed grand alliance led by Congress and RJD.
The BJP has already endorsed Nitish Kumar as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the NDA led alliance, though the election will be under guidance of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Being the first election in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic and post Ram Temple and Article 370, it will also be a test for him in a state where his party suffered a setback at the peak of his popularity in 2015.
Nitish Kumar will seek his seventh term as Bihar Chief Minister since 2005 and is the man under focus. Though his party has not ever been able to get the numbers to form government on its own in the state, he has remained an undisputed leader of the alliance. He banks on his ‘good governance’, development initiatives and women’s empowerment plank to help him deliver the state to the NDA alliance.
