Patna: The three-phase election in Bihar began this morning at 7 am, amidst a shocking episode of the security forces finding two IEDs in Aurangabad.
The police sources claim that the Maoists had planned to disrupt voting in the region.
The election will decide if Chief Minister Nitish will get fourth term as CM or not. The voting has kicked off in 71 seats out of 243 total seats in the state.
The Election Commission has issued detailed guidelines in wake of the pandemic. This includes lowering the cap on voters for each polling booth. This has been reduced from 1,600 persons 1000.
Electronic Voting Machines will be sanitised. Thermal scanners, hand sanitiser, soap and water will be made available for voters.
According to the State Election Commission, 2.14 crore voters will exercise their franchise in the first phase for which 31,371 polling stations have been set up. In the first phase, 1,066 candidates, including 114 women are in the fray.
While in the non sensitive constituencies voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the sensitive ones, the polling exercise will end at 3 p.m.; while in some other areas it will last till 4 p.m. Security forces have been deployed at all polling stations.
The second phase of voting for 94 seats will be on November 3 and for the third phase of 78 seats will be on November 7. Counting will take place on November 10.
