Nitish: Suitable dates?

Patna, Aug. 18: The Election Commission virtually baffled the ruling NDA in Bihar when it announced last Wednesday to hold by-election only on seven Assembly seats out of 18 lying vacant in the wake of their incumbents either crossing the floor or winning the last Lok Sabha elections.

While the NDA MPs led by JD-U president Sharad Yadav opposed the EC for selecting only seven seats more on the basis of its “whims” rather than a “valid political logic”, the Congress, RJD and LJP maintained a studied silence on the EC’s move.

However, the commission announced yesterday to hold polls on 11 of the remaining seats on September 15 — five days after the first phase. The counting of all 18 seats will take place on September 17.

The seats going to the polls on September 15 are Bgaha, Nautan, Begusarai, Tribeniganj, Simri-Bakhtiyarpur, Araria, Dhuraiya, Munger, Phulwari, Ghoshi and Bodh Gaya. The seven seats going to the polls on September 10 are Bochaha, Aurai, Kalyanpur, Warisnagar, Ramgarh, Chainpur and Chenari.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar and his party colleagues were virtually clueless about the logic which the EC employed earlier to pick up only seven seats for bypoll, while giving no indication of its plan about the rest.

But the UPA partners were feeling relieved at the EC’s decision to hold polls only on seven seats. Badly mauled in the Lok Sabha polls, the RJD, Congress and LJP were apparently not ready to enter the poll arena so soon and even before they were yet to recover from their drubbing.

Moreover, the NDA has not lost single by-election ever since Nitish became chief minister in 2005.