PATNA: The campaigning for the second and penultimate phase of assembly polls, to be held in 94 constituencies spread over 17 districts on November 3, came to an end on Sunday evening. All political parties on Sunday made their last-ditch efforts to woo the electorate, who will decide the fate of 1463 candidates, including seven ministers, on Tuesday.
Additional chief electoral officer (ACEO) Sanjay Kumar said, “The cacophony of electioneering for the second phase came to an end at 6pm on Sunday. Henceforth, no election rallies or corner meetings will be held in all the 94 constituencies going to the polls in the second phase. Door-to-door campaigning by the candidates will be allowed.”
In the second round, over 2.86 crore voters, including 1.35 crore women and 980 third gender, will exercise their franchise at 41,362 polling booths. PM
Narendra Modi addressed four election rallies in Chhapra, Motihari, Bagaha and Samastipur in favour of the NDA candidates on Sunday. Union minister Anurag Thakur, CM Nitish Kumar and actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwary also campaigned for the NDA candidates during the day. RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav campaigned for Grand Alliance candidates.
The fate of seven ministers in Nitish Kumar cabinet – Nand Kishore Yadav (
Patna Sahib), Rana Randhir Singh (Madhuban), Shravan Kumar (Nalanda), Ram Sevak Singh (Hathua), Maheshwar Hazari (Kalyanpur), Suresh Sharma (Muzaffarpur) and Madan Sahni (Gora Bauram) – will be decided in the second phase.
Heavyweights like opposition’s CM face Tejashwi (Raghopur), his elder brother and former health minister Tej Pratap Yadav (Hasanpur), former minister Manju Verma (Cheria Bariarpur), Chandrika Rai (Parsa), Munna Shukla (Lalganj), Amrendrra Pandey alias Pappu Pandey (Kuchaikot) and retired IPS officer Sunil Kumar (Bhore) are also in the fray.
In the 2015 assembly elections, the RJD had won 33 of these 94 seats, while 30 seats had gone to the kitty of JD(U). The Congress had registered victory in seven seats, BJP in 20 seats and LJP in two seats. One seat each had gone to the CPI-ML (Liberation) and an independent. The RJD, JD(U) and the Congress had contested the 2015 assembly elections together.
Of the 94 seats going to polls in the second phase, the RJD is contesting 56, the BJP 46 and the JD(U) 43. The Congress has put up its candidates in 24 constituencies, LJP in 52, Left parties in 14, BSP in 33 and RLSP in 36.
The VIP has fielded its candidates in five constituencies.
In 28 seats, RJD candidates are locked in direct contest with BJP nominees while on 24 seats, they will be taking on JD(U) candidates. Congress candidates are contesting 12 seats each against JD(U) and BJP nominees.
.At Raghopur in Vaishali district, Tejashwi is considered to be safe. Tej Pratap, however, is locked in a tough battle with two-term MLA Raj Kumar Rai of JD(U) in Hasanpur assembly constituency in Samastipur district. In 2015, Tej had won from Mahua in Vaishali districtof the state.