HASANPUR: As the counting of votes begins on Tuesday for the 243 assembly seats in Bihar across 55 centres in the state, one of the key assembly seats is Hasanpur - falling in the Samastipur district - where RJD's Tej Pratap Yadav is pitted against JD(U)'s Rajkumar Rai. The LJP has fielded Manish Kumar Sahni.
As per latest trends, Raj Kumar Ray is leading against Yadav by 1,365 votes.
In 2010 and 2015, Janata Dal (United)'s Raj Kumar Ray had won the seat. Hasanpur (Vidhan Sabha constituency) falls under Khagaria Lok Sabha constituency.
In 2015, Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of Lalu Prasad and Bihar's former health minister, was elected from the Mahua legislative seat.
As per the exit polls, the Mahagathbandhan, led by RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, is predicted by a majority of pollsters to win the polls. However, if the results belie the exit poll results, the people of Bihar will have reposed their faith in the “sushashan” of chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Bihar first state where the full-fledged election held after coronavirus
Counting of votes will begin at 8 am today with all real-time trends and results of elections being made on Election Commission of India's website http://results.eci.gov.in and Voter Helpline App.
The ECI has set up 55 counting centres in all the 38 districts of the state, which had voted in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7 to decide the fate of 3,755 candidates.
Bihar is the first state where the full-fledged election was held after the coronavirus outbreak in India. The voting across 243-assembly constituencies in Bihar was held in three phases on October 28, November 3, and November 7 to decide the fate of 3,755 candidates.
Over 7,29,27,396 electors were eligible to vote in Bihar polls and the voter turnout was at 57.05 per cent, which was 0.39 per cent higher compared to 56.66 per cent in 2015 elections.
The Election Commission took precautionary coronavirus measures as it mandated face masks, hand sanitizers, thermal scanners, gloves, face shields, and PPE kits during the electoral process while ensuring social distancing norms.
The poll body also increased the number of counting centres to 55 in 38 districts across Bihar, in order to comply with social distancing guidelines. The number of counting centres in the state was 38 during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) have been imposed in and around the counting centres to prevent the gathering of people.