Patna: The stage is set for the second and arguably, the most crucial of the three phases of Bihar assembly elections in which over 2.85 crore voters will decide the fate of nearly 1,500 candidates on Tuesday.
Voting will take place on November 3 in 94 assembly segments, more than a third of the 243-strong assembly spread across 17 districts, all of which but three -- Patna, Bhagalpur and Nalanda -- are situated north of the Ganges.
Maharajganj seat has a maximum of 27 candidates in the electoral battle and Daraula with only four in the second round of Assembly polls.
Trump cards for second phase elections
Notable among the candidates is the RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, the opposition Grand Alliance's Chief Ministerial candidate, who has been aggressively trying to cash-in on the anti-incumbency factor against the Nitish Kumar government.
The 31-year-old is seeking re-election from Raghopur in Vaishali district which he had wrested back for his party from the BJP's Satish Kumar in 2015. The BJP leader had defeated Yadav's mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, in 2010.
Tejashwi's elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav is trying his luck from Hasanpur in Samastipur district, shifting his base from Mahua in Vaishali.
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There were said to be feared in the RJD camp that Tej Pratap's bid to retain Mahua could be challenged by the NDA through his estranged wife Aishwarya as its trump card.
She is already taking an active part in the campaign for her father Chandrika Roy in Parsa, which he has represented a number of times and is seeking to retain on a JD(U) ticket this time.
Other prominent faces in the fray in the second phase are RJD leaders Alok Kumar Mehta from Ujiyarpur and Shailesh Kumar from Bihpur, former parliamentarian Anand Mohan's son Chetan Anand from Sheohar, former parliamentarian Rama Singh's wife Beena Singh from Mahnar, and Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha's son Luv Sinha from Bankipur.
Plurals Party leader Pushpam Priya Choudhary is also in the fray in Bankipur, apart from BJP's Nitin Naveen.
Ministers Nandkishore Yadav, Randhir Singh, and Shravan Kumar are also in the fray from Patna Sahib, Madhuban and Nalanda segments. The prestige of 27 MLAs of the Grand Alliance is at stake.
Moreover, seven constituencies of Nalanda district, to which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs, also go to polls in the second phase.
Seat- sharing for second phase
The RJD has fielded 56 candidates in the second phase of elections, wherein it is in direct contest with the BJP on 27 seats and with the ally turned foe JD-U on 25 seats.
The BJP is contesting 46 seats and the JD-U 43 seats.
The Congress is contesting 24 seats, CPI and CPM four each, Lok Janshakti Party 52 and RLSP 36 seats.
What happened in 2015 elections?
In the 2015 elections, the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad had bagged 33 of these seats, the JD-U 30 and the Congress seven whereas the NDA had won only 22 seats.
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However, a lot of water has since flown down the rivers ever since. New political permutations and combinations have come into play in 2020 as compared with the 2015 polls.
Five years ago, Nitish Kumar's JD-U fought the elections in alliance with the RJD and the Congress, whereas the NDA had Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) in its camp.
In this poll fray, the JD-U has moved to the NDA camp, the LJP is fighting its own battle and the RLSP is a part of the Grand Democratic Secular Front.
34% of candidates in second phase Bihar elections face criminal cases: ADR report
About 34% of 1,463 candidates in the second phase of the Bihar Assembly election have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to a report by-poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
About 27% or 389 candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, it said. Serious criminal cases are non-bailable offences with over five years of imprisonment.
A total of 495 or nearly 34% have given their financial assets worth crores of rupees while three candidates have declared zero assets, the report said.
“The average asset of candidates in the second phase Bihar election is ₹1.72 crore,” ADR report said.
As many as 49 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women and out of 49 candidates, four have declared cases related to rape, it said.
Caste plays a crucial role in Bihar polls
Despite the claims of the political parties that development will be the core issue in the Assembly election this year in Bihar, caste politics continues to play the crucial role. As per the voting pattern, every political party targets 'Dalit' community to garner more votes.
Bihar has a record of violence during polls
Although the Election Commission deploys maximum security during the election, violence during the poll is often seen in the state. The election of 1990, is considered as the most horrific polls that the state has ever witnessed. According to a report, more than 87 people were killed and over 1,000 were injured.
Meanwhile, elections for the 243-seat Bihar Assembly are set to be held in three phases, out of which polling in the first phase was conducted on October 28.
After the November 3 voting for 94 seats, remaining 78 constituencies will go to polls on November 7. The counting of votes is slated for November 10.
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