Officials carry EVMs and polling materials as part of preparations on the eve of the second phase of voting in the Bihar Assembly elections , in Gaya.
Credit: PTI photo
Patna: The keenly-watched Bihar is all set for the second and last phase of elections where voting will take place for the remaining 122 Assembly constituencies spread over 20 districts in Bihar on Tuesday.
Polling in the 121 seats have already taken place on November 6.
It is this last phase of the poll which will decide who – the NDA or the I.N.D.I.A. bloc – will rule Bihar for the next five years.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has deployed 1625 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) across the State as most of the seats going to polls share borders with three different states, besides Nepal in the northern side.
The CAPF personnel includes paramilitary forces like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel.
Assembly constituencies like Aurangabad share border with Uttar Pradesh in the west while Maoist-infested Gaya shares border with Jharkhand in South Bihar. The Muslim-dominated Kishanganj and Araria share borders with West Bengal in the east while the long stretch of Champaran shares its borders with the Himalayan Kingdom – Nepal on the north.
“This is precisely why borders have been sealed till voting is over by 6 pm on Tuesday evening,” said an IG-rank official.
CRUCIAL POLL
The second and last phase of election is crucial for both the NDA and the INDIA bloc as the Mahagatbandhan is looking to shore up its numbers in Muslim-dominated constituencies like Katihar, Araria, Purnia and Kishanganj. A dent by Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM in these four districts may spoil the Mahagatbandhan broth. No wonder, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav pulled out all the stops on Sunday, the last day of campaign, to woo their voters.
The BJP, which, of late, has been raking up the issue of infiltration, may not fetch much of electoral dividends as it remained more busy clarifying whether Nitish, the only credible face in the NDA, will be the Chief Minister post-poll or not.
Incidentally, the Mahagatbandhan, which started late and appeared divided, finally put its house in order and harped on two major issues: jobs and migration – something which Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor too had raised. Somehow, PK lost the plot midway when he decided he won’t contest the election and left his nominees high and dry in the absence of any credible CM face as the third option.
BACKDROP
Amid this backdrop, it will be interesting to watch which way the tide swings. During the 2020 polls, both the NDA and the INDIA bloc secured 37 per cent votes each, with a difference of 0.03 per cent, but in terms of seats, the NDA bagged 125, while the Mahagatbandhan was restricted to 110 seats, although the RJD emerged as the single largest party.
This election too, the fight is so close that even a one per cent swing may alter the numbers on either side of the fence.