The bitterness that has already arisen between the NDA and its opponents in the political arena of Bihar
Editorial: Bihar elections are very important for national politics as well: The election politics in the country has heated up again with the announcement of assembly elections in Bihar. While most political parties have expressed satisfaction over the Election Commission's announcement of keeping the election dates and the voting process in two phases, the Congress has not refrained from repeating the allegations of 'vote theft' and the 'unholy alliance' between the Election Commission and the BJP.
The party spokespersons, while maintaining their negative tone, have also said that 'if the elections are free and fair, the ruling NDA will definitely lose.'
The strong protest created over the deep revision of the voter lists (Special Intensive Revision) in the defeat and the continuous doubts over the functioning of the Election Commission after seeking the intervention of the Supreme Court in this matter, do not befit the oldest political party of the country. It is true that the Election Commission started the deep revision of the voter lists late and also gave the impression of not caring much about transparency in this process, but the intervention of the Supreme Court forced the Commission to abandon its stubbornness and make the revision work more transparent.
However, during the above proceedings, the apex court also continued to urge all the parties concerned from time to time not to hurt the dignity of an important constitutional institution like the Election Commission. Despite such developments, it does not seem reasonable for any party to continue to slander the Commission, especially when the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the leading party in the opposition's 'grand alliance', has distanced itself from such slander.
There are 243 seats in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. As per the announcement of the Election Commission, voting for 121 seats will be held on November 6 and for the remaining 122 seats on November 11. The results will be declared on November 14. Bihar currently has 7.43 crore voters, down from 7.80 crore in the 2020 assembly elections. The reduction in the number of voters has been possible due to the special rectification drive. According to the Election Commission, during the special rectification drive, the names of 68.5 lakh voters were deleted from the voter lists, while 21.5 lakh new voters were added. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar claims that the special rectification drive of the voter lists was, in fact, a process of ‘purification’ of these lists.
He says that only the names of those who died, permanently settled in other states or registered in more than one place were deleted from the voter lists. He also said that some such ‘voters’ were also caught during the special rectification drive who are Nepali or Bangladeshi citizens. But he refused to share further details with the media on the grounds that since the case regarding the special campaign is pending in the Supreme Court, all important information will be shared with the top court first.
The bitterness that has already arisen between the NDA and its opponents in the political arena of Bihar and in the Supreme Court even before the announcement of the election dates is likely to increase in the coming days. The Election Commission has called in 50 companies of central police forces to ensure free and secure elections. The purpose of holding the elections in two phases and not keeping much gap between the two phases is also to limit the chances of violence as much as possible.
In the current assembly, the NDA had 129 seats while the number of seats of the grand alliance was 112. This time, a third alliance is also in the fray under the leadership of the Jan Suraj Party led by Prashant Kishor. Its presence and ability to split votes will give the NDA a chance. Or who is more popular among the grand alliance, only the results will tell. Overall, Bihar will decide on November 14 whether Nitish Kumar will become the Chief Minister for the 10th time or not. These facts and figures will give a new direction and direction to the entire politics of the country in the coming days.
Bihar elections are also very important for national politics.
