NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Monday announced two-phase elections on November 6 and 11 in the Bihar Assembly polls for 243 seats.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accompanied by both Election Commissioners, announced the polling arrangements at a press conference here.
The gazette notifications will be issued on October 10 and 13 respectively for the polling, the last date for filing nominations are October 17 and 20. Scrutiny will be the next day while the withdrawals will be allowed till October 20 and 23 in the two phases.
The counting of votes in both the phases will be held on November 14.
There shall be also eight Assembly by-elections to be held on November 11, including two in Jammu and Kashmir and one in Rajasthan, and the counting of votes will be on November 14 alongwith the Bihar counting.
The by-elections are slated at Nagrota and Budgam in J&K, Anta in Rajasthan, Tarn Taran in Punjab. Other assembly bl-elections are: Ghatsila (Jharkhand), Dampa (Mizoram), Jubilee Hills (Telangana) and Nuapada (Odisha).
While the elections will see a direct contest between the BJP-Nitish Kumar combine and the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal-led INDI Alliance, political strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj party will make its debut.
A total of 7.43 voters will be exercising their right to vote at 90,712 polling stations, including 4 lakh senior citizens and 14 lakh first time voters. The elections will be conducted by as many as 8.5 lakh employees. There are 38 Scheduled Caste seats and two Scheduled Tribe seats.
