Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar during a press conference regarding the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, in New Delhi, Monday. (PTI)
The Bihar Assembly Election will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11, and counting of votes will be held on November 14, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar announced on Monday.
“There are a total of 7.42 crore voters in Bihar, of which 3.92 crore are males and 3.5 crore are women. There are 14 lakh first-time voters and 4 lakh senior citizen voters,” Kumar said at a press conference. At least 14,000 voters in the state are aged above 100 years. A total of 90,712 polling stations are being set up in Bihar, he said.
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Here is all you need to know about the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls:
Following a two-day visit to Patna, Kumar in a press briefing on Sunday, said the Commission is introducing a series of reforms and logistical changes. This time, the number of electors per polling station has been reduced to 1,200, down from the existing limit of 1,500. “Earlier, long queues used to form, especially during the final hours of polling. This change is aimed at cutting congestion and reducing waiting times,” Kumar said.
Apart from that, mobile phone deposit facilities will be introduced at polling stations across the state so that voters can easily cast their vote, ensuring transparency and fair practises. “This system was tested during recent by-elections and will now be implemented across the entire state with the Bihar elections,” he added.
The election will also witness the redesigned Voter Information Slips (VIS) and enlarged serial, part numbers will enable readability and are expected to reduce the processing time per voter. For the first time, Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been trained at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in Delhi, the CEC said, adding that earlier, such training was conducted only at the district or state level. BLOs have also been issued standardised photo ID cards to enhance credibility and ease of interaction with the public.
In a bid to reduce administrative burdens and enable seamless conduct of polls, the CEC also announced the launch of the ECINET dashboard, a platform that will consolidate around 40 different forms used during the electoral process. To minimise voter discomfort and maintain the neutrality of the polling environment, the canvassing distance for political parties has been revised, with the permissible limit now set at 100 metres from the polling station entrance.
Kumar added that all polling stations in Bihar will have “100% webcasting” for the first time to ensure greater transparency and monitoring. In addition, the counting of postal ballots will be completed before the final two rounds of counting of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Presiding Officers will also be required to hand over Form 17C, which contains booth-wise polling data, to party agents before leaving the polling station.
With the ongoing heat over the Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls, the polls will see the incumbent NDA government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar face the Opposition alliance of the RJD and Congress. In the previous election, the RJD was the single largest party with 75 seats, but the BJP and JD(U) together had 117 seats. A new entrant, Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj, is likely to contest this time. The term of the 243-seat Bihar Assembly comes to an end on November 22.
The election assumes much significance as it’s the first Assembly polls since the EC decided on June 24 to hold a SIR of electoral rolls in the country, beginning with Bihar. Unlike the past two years, the poll body decided to prepare the electoral rolls afresh instead of carrying out only annual and pre-election revisions.
Following the Bihar SIR, the electoral roll of the state was slashed by 68.5 lakh voters, with an addition of 21.53 lakh, leaving the total registered electors at nearly 7.42 crore. The EC’s decision to hold an SIR has been challenged in the Supreme Court, and the next hearing is set to be held on Tuesday.
Notably, the Bihar elections are also the first Assembly polls announced by the poll body after Kumar’s takeover as CEC in February this year. The previous polls held in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic were held in three phases, starting from October 28 to November 7, with counting of votes on November 10. The voter turnout in 2020 was 56.93%, with women’s turnout at 59.69% and men’s at 54.45%.
