Putting all speculations to rest, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that the Assembly polls in the state will be held as per the schedule and “the Election Commission is likely to announce the dates in September.”
Nitish was interacting with his party workers through a ‘virtual meet’ where he told them he had around two months’ time (July and August) to complete the pending work. “Once the Election Commission announces the poll schedule in September, the Model Code of Conduct will come into force. So essentially, we have around two months’ time to finish the incomplete task,” he told the JD(U) workers and leaders from nine districts, with whom he interacted in different sessions.
Asking his party workers to divide their time and energy in the ratio of 90:10, Nitish said, “Your 90 percent of the time should be devoted in explaining to the voters how Bihar has moved forward by leaps and bounds in terms of power supply and road connectivity, besides improved law and order and good governance. The rest 10 percent time and energy should be used to counter misinformation campaign against my government on social media and other such platforms.”
Bihar is the first state which will have elections for the 243 Assembly seats, post-COVID-19. The term of the present Assembly expires on November 29, 2020. The polls are likely to be held in October-November, once the rainy season is over.
The first sign of polls being held on time was evident when the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar, H R Srinivasa, earlier this week held confabulations with the District Magistrates (DMs) and asked them to get the physical verification of 72,000 polling booths done at the earliest. “The DMs have also been asked to appraise him (the CEO) about the status of EVMs procurement in the next meet, besides getting the voters’ list revised and updated,” a senior official, aware of the discussions, averred.
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