Bihar Assembly Election Dates 2025: The Election Commission will announce the polling dates for the Bihar Assembly elections today at 4 pm, with sources indicating that the exercise will be held in fewer phases this time, The Indian Express has learnt. A decision to reduce the number of phases, sources said, was taken after factoring in feedback from political parties during the Commission’s Bihar visit. In the meeting with political parties on Saturday, the ruling NDA demanded a single phase of voting, while the Opposition called for two phases, with both camps pressing for the polls to be held soon after the Chhath festival that begins on October 25. In the 2020 Assembly polls, voting in Bihar was held across three phases. The term of the 243-seat Assembly ends on November 22. The announcement comes just a day after the three Election Commissioners returned to Delhi following their October 4–5 visit to the state to review poll preparations. Another indication of fewer election phases is that the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are preparing to keep more companies ready for deployment, in anticipation of an increase in polling booths and a reduction in phases. An internal note reviewed by this newspaper states the same. As announced by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar during a press conference in Patna on Sunday, each polling booth for the Bihar elections will now cater to 1,200 electors, instead of the earlier norm 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 on Sunday. It is this increase in the number of polling booths that the CAPFs anticipate will require an enhanced deployment of personnel. The Bihar elections will be the first Assembly polls since the Election Commission (EC) decided on June 24 to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, starting with the state. In a break from the practice of the past two years, the EC opted to prepare the rolls afresh, instead of carrying out the usual annual or pre-election revisions. Following the SIR, Bihar’s electoral roll saw a deletion of 68.5 lakh voters and an addition of 21.53 lakh, bringing the total number of registered electors to nearly 7.42 crore. The EC’s decision to conduct an SIR has been challenged in the Supreme Court. These elections will also be the first since Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar took office in February this year. The last Bihar elections, held in 2020, were the first Assembly polls conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Polling then took place in three phases — from October 28 to November 7 — and votes were counted on November 10. The voter turnout was 56.93%, with women’s turnout at 59.69% and men’s at 54.45%. The upcoming contest will see the incumbent NDA government, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, face off against the Opposition alliance of the RJD and Congress. In 2020, the RJD had emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats, while the BJP and JD(U) together won 117 seats. A new entrant this time is Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj, which is expected to contest the polls.
