Bihar Polls: What Will India’s First Coronavirus Election Be Like?

by GoNews Desk 3 years ago Views 2597

Bihar Polls: What Will India’s First Coronavirus E
The Bihar Assembly polls will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7 amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

The counting of votes will take place on November 10, following which the results will be declared the same day.


The Election Commission said first phase voting will be held for 71 seats in 16 districts, second phase for 94 seats in 17 districts and third phase for 78 seats in 15 districts. This is the first major election in the country amidst Coronavirus pandemic, for which special arrangements have been made. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that this time the number of polling stations and manpower has been increased.

Bihar has 7.79 crore voters for 2020 elections, of which 3.39 crore are women. This time, the voting time has been increased by one hour and the number of voters per polling station has been reduced. There will be only 1,000 voters at a polling booth and voting will take place between 7am-6 pm. In the last hour of polling, COVID-19 patients who are under quarantine will vote.

The Election Commission has put certain kind of restrictions on campaigning. This time there will be an option of filing nomination forms online and only two people will accompany the candidate for submission of nomination at the RO office. Apart from this, only five people will be allowed for door-to-door campaign.

This time due to the pandemic, the necessary safety items will also be available at the polling stations. About 46 lakh masks, 6 lakh PPE kits, 7.2 crore single-use hand gloves and 7 lakh hand sanitisers have been arranged.

During the last Bihar assembly election in 2015, the BJP had tasted defeat at the hands of the RJD-JD(U)-Congress' grand alliance. Then RJD and JD(U) contested 100 seats each, of which RJD won 80 seats and the latter won 71 seats. The BJP was reduced to mere 53 seats. However, a year and a half later on July 26, 2017, CM Nitish Kumar broke away from the Grand Alliance and joined hands with the BJP.

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