Bihar Assembly Election: The voting for Bihar election began this morning (Representational)
Over 2 crore people in Bihar will vote today to elect their representatives for 71 of the state's 243 assembly constituencies. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United is contesting in 35 seats, while its ally BJP is contesting in 29. Chirag Paswan's LJP, which has emerged as Mr Kumar's biggest rival over the last few months, has fielded candidates in all the 35 seats contested by the JDU. Tejashwi Yadav's RJD is contesting in 42 seats, whereas as its ally Congress is trying its luck in 20 constituencies. Strict anti-Covid measures have been put in place by the Election Commission to prevent transmission of the virus during voting. The fate of several high-profile candidates, including six ministers and a former chief minister, will be decided in the first phase of polling.
Here are five points on Bihar Assembly Election 2020 Phase 1:
Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is contesting from the reserved Imamganj seat in Gaya district, which falls under Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency. The Hindustani Awam Morch president is the sitting MLA. The NDA candidate's challenger is Uday Narayan Singh, who had been associated with the JDU a few years ago but currently is an RJD nominee.
Shreyasi Singh, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist shooter, who is making her political debut at the age of 27, is the BJP candidate from Jamui. Her rival is RJD's Vijay Prakash Yadav, the sitting MLA, whose elder brother Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav is a former Union minister and a close aide of party chief Lalu Yadav.
Six members of the state cabinet - Prem Kumar (Gaya Town), Vijay Kumar Sinha (Lakhisarai), Ram Narayan Mandal (Banka), Krishnanandan Prasad Verma (Jehanabad), Jaikumar Singh (Dinara) and Santosh Kumar Nirala (Rajpur) - are contesting in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly election. Mr Verma, Mr Singh and Mr Nirala belong to the JDU, while the remaining are from the BJP.
The JDU ministers will face the LJP and the grand alliance both. Mr Verma, a key minister in Nitish Kumar's cabinet, is contesting election from the region where the RJD enjoys considerable influence.
An interesting three-way fight for the Sasaram seat is on the cards, with the incumbent - the RJD's Ashok Kumar fighting on a JDU ticket. He is up against veteran leader Rameshwar Chaurasiya, who quit the BJP to join Chirag Paswan's LJP. The RJD has fielded Rajesh Kumar Gupta.
With inputs from PTI
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