This year, the Bihar Assembly Elections are slated to be held in October and November.
The elections would be held in three phases, starting from the 28th of October till the 7th of November.
Unlike other elections, the Bihar Assembly elections would be a low key affair with the strict guidelines due to the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19.
In 2020, this would be the first Assembly election to be held amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The Election Commission of India (ECI,) issued the guidelines as follows:
Door to door campaign is subject to restrictions. Only five, including the candidate but excluding the security personnel, are allowed for door to door campaigning.
The convoy of vehicles should be reduced to five vehicles instead of 10 vehicles. The interval between two sets of convoy of vehicles should be half an hour instead of gap of distance.
Every person shall wear face masks during every election related activity.
Thermal screening of all persons is mandatory.
Sanitizer, soap and water to be made available at every booth.
Large halls should be identified as booths and counting centres so that social distancing can be maintained.
Nomination forms would be made available online. It could be filled online and its print could be taken out for submission.
Affidavit could also be filled online.
Though the cash deposit option would be there, candidates could deposit security money through online mode also.
Only two persons can accompany a candidate for submission of nomination.
Only two vehicles would be allowed during the nomination filing process.
Not more than 7 counting tables should be allowed in a counting hall. Hence, three to four halls may be taken up for the counting of votes of one constituency.
In addition, the maximum number of voters at a polling station in Bihar has been reduced from 1,500 to 1,000.
Bihar would contest for 243 Assembly seats with a majority mark of 166 seats to win the elections.
Political parties in the fray for the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections are the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD,) the Indian National Congress (INC,) the Communist Party of India (CPI,) the Janata Dal (United) (JD[U],) the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP,) the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP.)
Stay tuned for further updates.
