P. Sarojini’
Patna, India (CWBN)_ Bihar is voting today amidst the coronavirus pandemic and the voting began at 7 am today. The three-phase election is being conducted in Bihar to elect the state’s Chief Minister. Currently, the voting takes place in 71 of the state’s 243 seats. This election will decide whether Nitish Kumar will win his 4th term as CM. The three main candidates challenging each other are Nitish Kumar, the present CM of Bihar and his challenger, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and the third candidate Chirag Paswan who is the son of the late Lok Janshakti Party Chief Ram Vilas Paswan. RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav had promised of providing 10 lakh of jobs which drew huge support from the people due to lockdown and unemployment.
This election is the first election being conducted amidst the pandemic with full safety measures. The election commission has announced the safety rules to be followed while voting. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised the people to follow the covid guideline during the election and encouraged the people to come out for voting.
The election commission has taken serious safety measures and guidelines to be followed during voting. Some of such measures include reduction of the number of voters for a polling booth from 1,600 to 1,000 voters. Special measures like staggering of polling hours and postal ballot facility have been taken for the aged people and the infected ones. Apart from this, electronic voting machines have been sanitised and hand sanitisers, soap and water and thermal scanners have been made available to the voters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged the Bihar people to come out for voting in large numbers and also requested the people to follow the safety guidelines. The PM in his three rallies in the state made cursory mention about Nitish Kumar. To note, the PM and Amit Shah had accepted as Nitish Kumar as the face of the NDA in Bihar. The quick references to Nitish Kumar at the end of Modi’s speech had surprised many.
The parts of Bihar voting today gave huge support to Lalu Prasad Yadav in the 2015 election, which accounted for the total seats of BJP and JDU put together.
Tejashwi Yadav, son and political hire of Lalu Yadav and the Chief Minister candidate of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and the Left parties, had a mass support in the state. His campaigns and rallies were packed and he concentrated keen on unemployment issues and promised for providing 10 lakh jobs.
The pressure on the ruling allies has been visible on several occasions. The Chief Minister who is known for his calm character had seen losing his temper on several occasions. The BJP also promised of 19 lakh jobs in its election manifesto.
Chirag Paswan has been criticizing Nitish Kumar over a range of issues like his lack of initiative in bringing home the migrants. He rebelled against Nitish Kumar and announced that his party will act solo. The BJP made strong remarks that Nitish Kumar will remain their Chief Ministerial candidate.
Chirag Paswan joined the politics after his film career and emerged as a prefect leader with high credentials. He supported for Triple Talaq, the scrapping of Article 370, and also promised of a temple for Goddess Sita in Sitamarhi. Hence, he was considered one of the promising candidates in the state.
Earlier, Nitish Kumar won the 2015 election with the Grand Alliance with the Congress and Lalu Yadav. But in the middle of the term, due to the corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav, he ended the alliance and then joined BJP to form a new government.
It was expected that the Imamganj seat in Gaya will face a serious battle with former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi challenging former Assembly speaker and RJD candidate Uday Narayan Choudhary. In Jamui, former Union minister Digvijay Singh’s daughter and BJP candidate Shreyasi will challenge RJD legislator Vijay Prakash.
This election is a three-phase election. With the first phase taking place today, the second and third phases will be held on November 3 and 7. The vote counting will be on November 10.
