Bihar electoral fight enters ‘do or die’ stage

With the first two phases throwing up a keen contest, panic-stricken BJP has put in all its resources to turn the wind in its favour

Electronic Voting Machines are taken to the polling booths on the eve of third phase of polls in Patna on Tuesday. - Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

Polling will be held for the 50 Assembly seats in Bihar in the crucial third phase election on Wednesday, which is being considered a “make or mar” round for the National Democratic Alliance. Prominent candidates include two sons of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, contesting from Raghopur and Mahua constituencies of Vaishali district.

In the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party has done overwhelmingly well in the region going to polls on Wednesday and the party has been keeping high hopes again on these seats. With the first two phases throwing up a keen contest, the panic-struck BJP has put in all its political resources to turn the wind in its favour.

Altogether, six districts — Bhojpur, Buxar, Nalanda, Patna, Saran and Vaishali — will go to polls in this crucial phase and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed nine meetings in the past three days. He is expected to address eight more for the remaining two phases.

Political observers say that of the 50 seats, the BJP has to register win in 34-36 seats to counter the grand alliance in the remaining two phases, scheduled for November 1 and 5. Analysts say the NDA is expected to do well in urban and upper caste-dominated Patna, Saran and Buxar districts, while the grand alliance could do well in Vaishali and Nalanda districts having a sizeable population of extremely backward and backward caste voters.

Saran and Nalanda districts are the home turf of Mr. Prasad and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and both leaders have worked hard to retain their base there but the BJP too has campaigned hard to make a dent in their vote bank. Analysts say rebel candidates may spoil the chances of the official grand alliance candidates in several seats.

Besides Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav, sons of Mr. Prasad, the prominent politicians whose fate will be decided in this phase include BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav (Patna Sahib), Ministers Shyam Rajak and Shrawan Kumar (Phulwarisharief and Nalanda), Deputy Speaker Amarendra Pratap Singh (Ara) and BJP chief whip in the Assembly Arun Kumar Sinha (Kumhrar).

Tight security Additional Chief Electoral Officer R. Lakshamanan said 1.45 crore voters would decide the fate of 808 candidates, 71 of whom are women. All the 716 poling stations will be manned by the Central paramilitary forces and equipped with live webcams.

Besides, 50 mounted police personnel and 47 motor boats will be used for patrolling. Five helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles will be used for surveillance. Voting will start at 7 a.m. in all 50 constituencies but it will end at 4 p.m. in 10 constituencies and at 5 p.m. in 40 constituencies for security reasons, according to the EC official.