Polling is underway in six Naxal-affected districts (Kaimoor, Rohtas, Arwal, Jehanabad, Aurangabad and Gaya) in the second phase of the 2015 Bihar election, where 456 candidates, including merely 32 women, are contesting for 32 Assembly seats.
Polling percentage of 47 per cent was recorded till 2 pm.
A total of 86,13,870 voters will exercise their franchise at 9,119 polling booths.
While 106 candidates are millionaires, according to their nomination affidavits, around 142 contenders have criminal cases against them.
R Lakshman, the Additional Chief Election Officer, has confirmed that due to security concerns and the Naxal threat, voting hours for many seats have been reduced; polling will start at 7 am for 32 seats, but voting will remain open until 3 pm for 11 seats, until 4 pm for 12 seats and till 5 pm for the remaining 9 seats.
Around 993 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed along with the state police, while additional arrangements with sniffer dogs have also been made.
A Close Contest
Some of Bihar’s political bigwigs are contesting in this phase of the poll. The Imamganj seat (SC) may be the most hotly contested; the former chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) party chief, Jitan Ram Manjhi, will have a tough battle with JDU’s senior leader, Udai Narayan Chowdhary. Chowdhary, the State Assembly speaker, has won this seat for the past five consecutive elections and is a close advisor to the chief minister, Nitish Kumar.
Manjhi is also contesting from the Makhdumpur seat of Jehanabad. The BJP had also fielded some big names - former minister Prem Kumar in Gaya City, former state party chief Gopal Narayan Singh from Nabinagar and Rajendra Singh from Dinara.
Seven seats are for the reserved category, which will test the caste equations. The BJP is banking heavily on Manjhi as they see him as a Mahadalit representative.
Some constituencies in Rohtas and Kaimoor might also see tough competition from the Mayawati’s BSP, as these regions border UP and have a sizable Dalit population.
Poll Politics
The Mahagathbandhan has much at stake in the second phase of the poll, going in as the winners of the 2010 election. In that year they won 19 of the 32 seats, while the BJP won just 10, with the RJD settling for two and an independent candidate winning the final seat.
This year the JDU and the RJD have fielded 13 candidates each, while the Congress will contest six seats. The BJP on the other hand has given half of the seats to allies in the state; HAM has got seven seats, with Manjhi contesting two, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party has fielded six candidates and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) three.
The BJP camp has left no stone unturned in the election preparations, conducting around 35 rallies. Led by the party president, Amit Shah, they held massive campaigns and rallies in all the 32 constituencies. Campaign and rallies were held by many prominent party leaders, including the union home minister, Rajnath Singh, LJP Chief Ram Vilas Paswan, Manjhi, Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Giriraj Singh and Sadhavi Njranjan Jyoti, Jharkhand Health Minister Ramchandra Chandrawansi and BJP MP and former DGP of Jharkhand, VD Ram. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too campaigned aggressively, holding many rallies in the state.
The Mahagathbandhan was equally aggressive in their campaigning, with Nitish and Lalu Prasad Yadav holding 15 rallies each.
But all was not smooth sailing for the Grand Alliance. A sting operation surfaced on the 113rd Anniversary Of Jai Prakash Narayan, which showed Awadhesh Kumar, a minister in the Nitish government and a candidate from the Pipra seat, accepting a bribe of R 4lakh in return for favours.
The Prime Minister took no time in bringing up this incident in his rallies at Jahanabad and Kaimoor on October 12. Nitish however continued defending his government and reiterated his pledge for zero tolerance on corruption, highlighting that his party asked the tainted minister to resign immediately and replaced him with another candidate in Pipra.
In another bizarre event, all poll banners and posters, including those of Shah and Modi, were removed from the premises of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Airport In Patna. The posters were removed on the grounds of violating norms, a day after a Grand Alliance delegation comprising KC Tyagi (JD-U), RPN Singh (Congress), Manoj Jha (RJD) and KTS Tulsi, an eminent lawyer, submitted a memorandum to the Chief Election Commissioner giving details of posters and banners carrying the pictures of BJP leaders and the election symbol at the airport.
(Utpal Pathak is a freelance journalist from Patna.)
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