Bihar Assembly Elections 2025: All eyes on Election commission team as CEC holds confabulations with political parties

Patna: The Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, flanked by the two Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, took stock of the poll preparedness for the ensuing Bihar Assembly election during their Patna visit on Saturday.

The two-day visit began with the EC team holding confabulations with the representatives of all the major political parties in Bihar including the ruling allies – the JD (U), the BJP, HAM and the LJP (R), besides the principal Opposition parties - the RJD and its allies – the Congress, CPI, CPM, CPI-ML and the VIP.

“Under the chairmanship of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the discussions with all the 12 recognised political parties of Bihar began with the Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and the Election Commissioner Dr Vivek Joshi, Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer Vinod Gunjyal, and senior officials of the Commission,” the EC said in a message on X on Saturday.

According to sources, the EC sought feedback on voters’ list discrepancies, polling booths facilities and EVM security. “The political parties are the foundations of any democracy and, therefore, should actively participate in elections,” the EC reportedly told the leaders’ delegation.

On Sunday, the EC team is likely to meet the nodal officers of the enforcement agencies - the Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, Custom & Excise and other top Bihar officials including the Chief Secretary, the DGP and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).

Term of the Assembly

Once the EC visit is over, the poll schedule is likely to be announced any time with the possibility of two or three phases of elections in November. As per the law, the new Assembly has to be constituted by November 22.

This was the first high-level review by the top EC team in the State after the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was carried out in Bihar in July to weed out bogus voters. The EC on September 30 eventually released a final electoral list where Bihar now has 7.42 crore voters, instead of earlier 7.89 crore voters.

The EC said it deleted 65 lakh bogus voters, while adding 21.53 lakh genuine voters, thereby taking the voters' number to 7.42 crore, instead of earlier 7.89 crore (as per June 24 list).

Straight contest

The ensuing poll is likely to see a straight and fierce contest between the NDA and the INDIA bloc (also called Mahagatbandhan, the Hindi avtaar of the Grand Alliance). The poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, who has floated his political party - Jan Suraaj – is also likely to throw his hat in the ring thereby making it a triangular contest.

In the present Assembly, the NDA has 131 seats while the Mahagatbandhan 111 seats.