The crucial second phase of polling in 94 constituencies in Bihar was over on Tuesday with around 54 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise. Today’s poll was significant in the sense that the alliance, which could muster support in the first two phases, could scrape through in the fiercely-fought three-phase election.
The first phase of voting took place in 71 constituencies on October 28 when Bihar became the first state in the country to hold an election amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
With today’s polling, elections in 165 constituencies, out of 243 seats, is now over. The third and final phase of the poll is slated for November 7.
Peaceful polling was recorded at Raghopur in Vaishali too, from where the Mahagatbandhan Chief Ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav is in the fray from the seat once represented by his mother Rabri Devi when she was Chief Minister of Bihar.
Nitish Kumar is not contesting the Assembly election as he is already a member of the Legislative Council (MLC). Incidentally, Nitish has not contested an Assembly poll after 1985.
Likewise, Chirag Paswan, who has raised a banner of revolt against Nitish, is also not contesting the Assembly poll as he is already an LJP MP from Jamui.
Meanwhile, the second phase of the poll on Tuesday also sealed the fate of Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap from Hasanpur (in Samastipur) and Assembly Speaker Vijay Choudhary from Sarairanjan (in Samastipur), besides Shatrughan Sinha’s son Luv Sinha from Bankipur in Patna and Manju Verma (the sacked minister from Nitish Cabinet following Muzaffarpur shelter home row) from Cheria Bariyarpur in Begusarai.
“I am hopeful the new youth icon Tejashwi Yadav will don the mantle of chief ministership soon as he has proved to be a ‘shaandaar’ and ‘dumdaar’ (effective and assertive) leader and has given his rival a run for his money even in the absence of his father Lalu Prasad,” said Shatrughan Sinha, the former MP from Patna Sahib, soon after exercising his franchise here in the State Capital.