Bihar Assembly Election: After 15 years in power, Nitish Kumar, 69, is facing a tough re-election bid.
Bihar will go for the third and final phase of polls on Saturday across 78 assembly constituencies spread over 16 districts with all players having made last-ditch efforts to woo voters.
Over 2.35 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in this phase including nearly 1.23 crore male and 1.12 crore female voters.
Election Commission has made adequate arrangements for the election with precautionary measures against COVID-19.
Top campaigners of political parties in the fray including Prime Minister Narendra Modi held rallies ahead of the third phase of polling.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal has the maximum number of 46 candidates in the third phase followed by Lok Janshakti Party at 42.
The Janata Dal (United) has fielded 37 candidates, Bharatiya Janata Party 35, Nationalist Congress Party 31, Congress 25, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party 23 and Bahujan Samaj Party 19. The Communist Party of India (CPI) is contesting two seats.
A total of 1,204 candidates, including 382 independents, are in the fray for the last phase with 1,094 male and 110 female candidates.
Gaighata has a maximum 31 candidates, while Dhaka, Triveniganj, Jokihat and Bahadurganj have the least number of nine candidates each.
Valmiki Nagar is the largest assembly constituency area-wise, whereas Saharsa is the largest in terms of the size of the electorate. Hayaghat is the smallest assembly constituency.
The third phase of polling will decide the fate of leaders such as Abdul Bari Siddiqui contesting from Kewati, Sharad Yadav''s daughter Subhashini Yadav from Bihariganj, Lovely Anand contesting from Saharsa, Nikhil Mandal from Madhepura and Akhtarul Iman from Amour. Eight ministers of JD-U are also in the field in this phase.
Apart from NDA and RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, Grand Secular Democratic Front comprising, RLSP, AIMIM, BSP and some other parties is also seeking to make its mark.
Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) of former MP Rajiv Ranjan aka Pappu Yadav and other smaller parties are also fighting hard on their turfs.
In the Seemanchal region going to polls in the third phase, Mahagathbandhan has 14 MLAs, NDA nine and the AIMIM one. Thirty-eight seats in Mithilanchal region will also go to the polls.
Several seats in the third phase election have a sizeable presence of minority voters.
The state witnessed 55.69 per cent polling in the first phase of elections on October 28 and 53.51 per cent in the second phase held on November 3.
The state assembly has 243 seats and results will be declared on November 10.
Here are the Live Updates on Bihar Assembly Election 2020:
Bihar elections: Bypolls in Valmiki Nagar
Polling will also take place for Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat where a by-election has been necessitated by the death of sitting JD(U) MP Baidyanath Mahato.
The JD(U)'s bid to retain the Parliamentry seat by fielding his son Sunil Kumar is facing the primary challenge from Congress candidate Pravesh Kumar Mishra, a journalist-turned-politician.
Like Valmiki Nagar, all the 78 poll-bound assembly segments spread across 19 districts fall in north Bihar, as areas falling north of the Ganges in the state are called in common parlance.
Many of these fall in the Kosi-Seemanchal region where the contest between NDA and Grand Alliance will be held under the shadow of Owaisi factor given the fact that the AIMIM has fielded candidates in many of the Muslim-dominated seats and the Hyderabad MP also carried out a hectic campaign.
The Kosi-Seemanchal region also happens to be the main area of influence for maverick former MP Pappu Yadav, whose Jan Adhikar Party is determined to make its presence felt and
prove a point to the RJD as both draw their support from the states most populous community the Yadavs.
Independent candidate from Hayaghat shot at by unidentified assailants
Unidentified assailants shot at Ravindra Nath Singh, independent candidate from Hayaghat assembly seat in Darbhanga, in Thathopur area on Thursday ahead of the third phase of polling in Bihar. He was admitted to a local hospital.
The third phase of the poll for 78 seats in Bihar will be held on November 7, mostly in Muslim-dominated Seemanchal areas of northeast Bihar. In the third phase, 33,782 control units, 45,953 ballot units and 33,782 VVPATs will be used in 33,782 polling stations. The result will be declared on November 10.
Speaker, 12 Ministers Among Key Candidates in Third Phase
Prominent candidates include Vijay Kumar Chaudhary of JD(U),Speaker of the outgoing assembly, famed for his ability to win over hostile opponents with a disarming smile, who seeks
to do a hat-trick in Sarairanjan.
JD(U) ministers in the fray are Bijendra Prasad Yadav (Supaul), Narendra Narayan Yadav (Alamnagar), Maheshwar Hazari (Kalyanpur), Ramesh Rishideo (Singheshwar), Khurshid alias
Firoz Ahmed (Sikta), Lakshmeshwar Roy (Laukaha), Bima Bharti (Rupauli) and Madan Sahni (Bahadurpur).
Four ministers are in the fray from the BJP Pramod Kumar (Motihari), Suresh Sharma (Muzaffarpur), Binod Narayan Jha (Benipatti) and Krishnakumar Rishi (Banmankhi).
Besides, wife and daughter-in-law respectively of recently deceased ministers Vinod Kumar Singh (BJP) and Kapil Deo Kamat (JDU) respectively are in the fray from the late
legislatorss respective seats Pranpur and Babubarhi.
Seventy-eight assembly segments of the 243-strong Bihar Assembly will go to polls tomorrow.
Third and final phase to be held tomorrow
All eyes are now on the polling for third and final phase of assembly elections in Bihar scheduled Saturday in which stakes are quite high for the ruling NDA, trying to avert the anti-incumbency factor, and the opposition Grand Alliance led by an apparently resurgent RJD.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong Assembly, will decide the fates of 1204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
PM Modi, who attended 12 rallies during the campaign, came out with an open letter addressed to the people of the state Thursday saying he "needed" Nitish Kumar in the state so that the development of Bihar continued unhindered.
Rashtriya Janata Dal has maximum number of 46 candidates
The Rashtriya Janata Dal has the maximum number of 46 candidates, followed by the Lok Janshakti Party at 42. The Janata Dal (United) has fielded candidates on 37 seats, Bharatiya Janata Party on 35, Nationalist Congress Party 31, Congress 25, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party 23, Bahujan Samaj Party 19, Communist Party of India on two seats and the National People''s Party on one seat.
AIMIM colluding with BJP, will have little impact on polls: Congress's Bihar chief
Congress' Bihar unit chief Madan Mohan Jha has accused the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party of colluding with the BJP, but said it will not have any significant impact on the assembly polls as people will not "waste" their votes, news agency PTI reported.
The Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief also said the Tejashwi Yadav-led "Mahagathbandhan" will get a clear majority in the polls and the Congress will "definitely" do better in terms of winning percentage on the seats contested as compared with the 2015 polls.
Nitish Kumar will stay in politics, says Harivansh
Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh on Thursday said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will stay in politics.
Speaking to ANI, Harivansh said, "I'd like to clarify that Nitish ji has said that this is his last election. He is and will stay in politics."
A total of 2.35 crore voters will exercise their franchise on November 7 as Bihar goes to its third and final phase of election to decide the fate of remaining 78 seats in 16 districts.
There are 1.23 crore are male voters, while 1.12 crore are women and 894 third gender voters in the general category. Altogether there are 22,019 service voters.
Nitish Kumar has "effectively conceded defeat": P Chidambaram
Congress leader P Chidambaram, meanwhile, said that Nitish Kumar has "effectively conceded defeat" with the declaration.
While Nitish Kumar's opposition rival Tejashwi Yadav remarked that he was right about the chief minister all along, his former ally turned chief critic Chirag Paswan appealed to people not to waste their votes on any candidate of the ruling Janata Dal United.
Last Election, Says Nitish Kumar. And Chirag Paswan Zinger Follows
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's statement at a rally that the Bihar election is his last did not pass without biting comments from his opposition rival Tejashwi Yadav and his former ally turned chief critic Chirag Paswan.
"Today is the last day (of campaign for the final phase of the election). The day after, this election will end and this is my last election. Ant bhala to sab bhala (All's well that ends well)," Nitish Kumar said while campaigning in Bihar's Purnea for the state polls that end on Saturday.
Amid furious retirement buzz, sources close to the five-time chief minister clarified that he meant "last election meeting of this election". (Read full story
here)
For all the updates on yesterday's developments, click
here