The Election Commission on Monday announced that the Bihar Assembly polls would be held in two phases on November 6 and 11, and the votes counted on November 14.
Two Assembly by-elections in Jammu and Kashmir and one each in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Telangana, Punjab, Mizoram and Odisha will take place on November 11, with the counting on November 14.
“Not only will law and order be fully monitored, but the elections in Bihar will be conducted peacefully and transparently, and will perhaps be considered the best elections ever,” chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said.
Bihar has always voted in three or more phases since T.N. Seshan, the then CEC, attempted a crackdown on booth capturing during the 1995 polls.
Asked how he hoped to conduct the polls in two phases, Kumar said: “Voter awareness, central armed police forces’ availability, law-and-order assessment and increased efficiency of the Election Commission and its staff.”
Kumar made an announcement that seemed aimed at placating the Opposition, which has long accused the poll panel, without credible evidence, of inflating figures of last-hour polling.
The CEC said: “The reality is that the total number of votes cast at each polling booth is given to each candidate’s polling agent in the form of Form 17C after voting ends. Data entry used to take this long.”
“Recently, in the first three or four by-elections, we implemented a new system to address this confusion. This means that after voting is complete, the polling agents present at the polling station will be given Form 17C. However, the presiding officer will enter the data into the new voter turnout app,” the CEC said.
He added: “In some places where Internet access is not available, they can also enter it offline. Therefore, by the time they reach the counting centre, you will have approximate voting trends, and the possibility of an increase will be eliminated.”
Kumar evaded two key questions on the special intensive revision — the number of foreign nationals found on the voter rolls and the skewed voter gender ratio favouring men.On foreign nationals, Kumar said the data was available at the local and state levels, but had not been publicly disclosed yet.
On why the ratio of women voters had fallen to around 893 from 907 per 1,000 men, he said: “I think these were the points, and as far as the deletion of women voters is concerned, both women’s votes and male votes were deleted. The SIR had a clear slogan — no eligible voter should be left out, and no ineligible voter should be included in the voter list.”
Speaking a day before the Supreme Court’s final hearing of the challenge to the SIR, Kumar did not respond to the question whether the annual special summary revision would take place in states where the SIR is not implemented immediately.
Kishor to contest
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Monday announced he would contest the Assembly polls and the list of his party’s candidates would be declared on October 9.