Bihar polls in 3 phases from October 28: EC

New Delhi: The much-awaited poll dates for politically sensitive Bihar were announced on Friday by the Election Commission of India (ECI). According to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, Bihar's Assembly election, which is the first to go to polls after COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, will be held in three phases starting from October 28 and will conclude on November 7.

The polling for the second phase will be on November 3 and the results for the 243-seat Assembly seats will be declared on November 10, nearly three weeks ahead of the term of the Assembly that expires on November 29.

The first phase will cover 71 Assembly seats, including LWE-hit ones, in 16 districts, while the second phase will cover 94 seats in 17 districts with the third and final phase to cover 78 Assembly seats in 15 districts.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced a new normal in every aspect, the ECI has also made several changes in its rulebook by extending the one-hour voting time from 7 am to 6 pm instead of 7 am to 5 pm and allowing Covid patients to cast vote in the last hours of polling. In the Maoist-infested areas, voting will be allowed till 5 pm only.

For the first time, the option of postal ballot facility has been extended to persons with disabilities, electors above the age of 80 years, electors employed in notified essential services, electors who are COVID-19 positive/suspect.

As per fresh ECI guidelines, only two persons have been allowed to accompany the candidate for nomination instead of five, while the number of vehicles for nomination is limited to two and five persons, including a candidate, have been allowed for a door-to-door campaign.

The convoy of vehicles in roadshows should be broken after every five vehicles instead of 10 vehicles, excluding the security vehicles and the interval between two sets of a convoy of vehicles would be 30 minutes instead of a gap of 100 metres.

The candidates can file their nominations and affidavit online while security amount has to be deposited online. The ECI has made it mandatory for candidates with criminal records to publish information in this regard in newspapers and through TV channels on three occasions during the campaign period.

Polling booths have been increased from 65,367 in 2015 to 1,06,526 in 2020 as only 1,000 voters are allowed in each booth instead of 1,500 as was in 2015. The state has a total of 7,29,27,396 voters as of September 23.