The Corona Virus had brought normal life on stand still and while everything is coming back to normal, things are being unlocked phase wise. And amidst that the dates for Bihar elections have also finally been announced at a press conference by senior election commissioner Sunil Arora. Yesterday afternoon Sunilji announced that the voting for 243 seats will happen in three phases on 28th October, 3rd November and 7th November, respectively. The results for the same will be declared on 10th November. While many were also awaiting to get clarity on whether by-elections will also happen in the other 56 seats other than the 28 Vidhan Sabha seats, but that decision will be taken on 29th September. 

The results for Bihar elections will be announced before the festive phase, that is, Diwali on 14th November and the Chhat celebrations on 20th November. However, the oath taking ceremony for the new government will only happen after the Chhat celebrations.  The current bench of Vidhan Sabha’s tenure is till 29th November this year. 

Here are more details about the Bihar election:

Phase 1

On Wednesday, 28th October 2020, voting will take place for 71 seats and 31 thousand polling booths will be set up for the same. 

Phase 2

On Tuesday, 3rd November, voting will happen for the other 94 seats in 42000 polling booths. 

Phase 3 

In the final phase, which is on Saturday 7th November, polling will take place for the remaining 78 seats at 33 thousand 500 polling booths. 

So, for these 243 seats, 7. 29 crore people will be casting their vote, in these, 3.85 crores are men, while 3.40 crore are women voters. In the last Vidhan Sabha elections, there were a total of 6.7 crore voters. This year 1.73 lakhs VVPT will be used at 42000 polling booths. Also, keeping in mind the Corona situation, some important guidelines have been issued to be followed during the Bihar elections. 

Amongst these guidelines, one of the most important ones shared by the election commission is the duration for voting will be increased by an hour. Voting will happen in all the areas between 7am to 6 pm, instead of 7am to 5pm. This will be applicable to all the areas, other than the Naxalite-dominated ones. The other two announcements that were mentioned in the earlier issued guidelines were that on the first polling booth only 1000 voters will be allowed instead of 1500. And all those affected with COVID-19 will be allowed to cast their vote in the last one hour. 

Other precautions that have been taken for Corona include the usage of 46 lakhs face masks, 7.6 lakhs face shields, 23 lakh pairs of hand gloves, and 6 lakh PPE kits. The election commissioner also announced that a postal belt facility will be provided wherever it is needed and asked for. Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, further added, that more than 60 states have postponed the elections due to COVID-19 because there are no signs of the Corona crisis and this new normal ending anytime soon. However, they had to respect the democratic liberty of the people and also give priority to their health. 

Some other major highlights of the Bihar elections this year are the Corona Virus, farmer and Agriculture, Unemployment, Migrant Workers, Development of state, Ram Mandir, etc. Political figures like Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Tejaswi Yadav, Nitish Kumar, and Chirag Paswan will be seen contesting in these elections. 

In the pandemic situation, the Bihar elections will not just be the country’s but the world’s biggest elections. Stay tuned!

Written by Nawaz Kochra