Bihar Elections 2020 Live Updates Voting Phase 2: With COVID-19 guidelines in place, Phase 2 voting for the Bihar Assembly polls began at 7 am with 1,463 candidates in the fray in 94 seats across 17 districts.
Notable among the candidates in the second phase is the RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, the Opposition Grand Alliance’s chief ministerial candidate, who has been aggressively trying to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor against the Nitish Kumar government.
The 31-year-old is seeking re-election from Raghopur in Vaishali district which he had wrested back for his party from the BJP’s Satish Kumar in 2015. The BJP leader had defeated Yadav’s mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, in 2010.
The second phase of the Bihar Assembly election began at 7 am on Tuesday (3 November). The second of the three-phased poll will see over 2.85 crore voters cast their ballot, while there are nearly 1,500 candidates in the fray.
Voting will take place in 94 Assembly segments, which is more than a third of the 243-member-strong Assembly spread across 17 districts.
With the exception of three districts — Patna, Bhagalpur, and Nalanda — the other districts heading to polls on Tuesday are situated north of the Ganga river.
The districts in which polls will be held in the second phase are West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur, Nalanda, and Patna.
Out of the total 1,463 candidates in the second phase, 1,316 are men, 146 are women and one is transgender. Of the total 2,85,50,285 voters 1,50,33,034 are male, 1,35,16,271 female and 980 transgender, as per the poll panel data.
The Election Commission said it has set up a total of 41,362 booths at 18,823 polling stations.
Villagers of Chulhai Bishunpur area in the Baruraj Assembly constituency boycotted the polls alleging lack of development in the area. “There are 729 voters registered here and not a single vote has been cast so far,” an electoral officer at booth number 178 said.
Bihar Elections Polling LIVE: 32.82 % votes cast till 1 pm, as per the Election Commission's update. Bihar woke up to a slow polling day on Tuesday amid covid-19 fears. The highest poll percentage of 41.25 has been recorded in Muzaffarpur among the 17 districts, where the 94 seats are located, according to the Election Commission's Voter Turnout App, updated till 1 pm.
8.05 per cent polling was recorded in the second phase of Bihar elections till 9 am: Chief Electoral Officer(CEO), Bihar.
RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav who is contesting from the Hasanpur seat in the Bihar assembly elections, says, "The public wants a change in Bihar. I appeal to people to cast their vote."
Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan casts his vote for second phase of Bihar elections, at the polling booth at government school in Digha, Patna. He says, "I appeal to the people to participate in election in large numbers. I hope that voting percentage will be more than previous time."
A girl and her grandmother arrived at a polling booth in Patna on cycle to cast their votes. "I've come here with my grandmother. I'll be voting for the first time. I hope we'll have more employment opportunities for youth now," she told ANI.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to voters in Bihar to turn up in large numbers for Phase 2 of polling to "ensure the success of the festival of democracy". He also urged people to maintain social distance and wear masks.
Asserting that his vision is 'Bihar first, Bihari first, LJP leader Chirag Paswan said that he is sure Nitish Kumar will not become the chief minister after 10 November. "I want work to be done as per vision document prepared by suggestions of four lakh Biharis," he told ANI.