Six-phase polling in Bihar from Oct 21

The third phase will be on October 28 for 48 seats,fourth on November one (42),fifth on November nine (35) and last on November 20 (26 seats),Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi told a press conference here.

Counting for the 243 Assembly seats will be held on November 24.

Polling will be held in 56,943 polling stations spread across the state in which an over 5.5 crore electorate is expected to exercise their franchise.

The bypolls for Banka Lok Sabha seat,which fell vacant following the death of sitting MP Digvijay Singh,will be held on November 1.

Welcoming the six-phase Assembly poll schedule for Bihar,Lok Janashakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan today demanded steps by the Election Commission to ensure that all booths were manned by central forces.

Central forces comprisisng the CRPF and BSF should man all the polling booths to ensure free,fair and fear-free polls,he told reporters here.

Claiming that people of the state had made up their minds to ensure that NDA is defeated,Paswan said the RJD-LJP combine had been in poll mode for the past two months. “Now our remove-Nitish campaign will be further intensified with people’s support,” he said.

The NDA government was a failure on all front and issues like unemployment,poverty,corruption and misgovernance would rev up the campaign to oust Nitish Kumar.

He accused the state government of failing to handle the Bihar hostage crisis and alleged that its claim of establishing rule of law in the state had also been exposed.