Bihar polls:Tejashwi Yadav welcomes EC announcement, says 'people want to get rid of govt'

Minutes after the Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the Bihar polls, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav opined that that people of the state wanted to get rid of the Nitish Kumar-led government. Maintaining that farmers, workers, women and other sections of the society are angry, he contended that the RJD's fight was with BJP only. Referring to Kumar's decision to tie up with BJP in 2017, Yadav contended that the JD(U) did not have any credibility anymore. 

Moreover, the former Bihar Deputy CM accused the state government of failing to handle the COVID-19 and flood situation. According to him, the ruling alliance was trying to deviate from real issues like contraction of the GDP and unemployment. While refusing to comment on the opposition's CM candidate, he lamented that the Bihar CM had not accepted his challenge for an open debate on the vision for the state. 

Read: Buffaloes & Tractors: Tejashwi Leads RJD's Protest Against Farm Bills Ahead Of Bihar Polls

EC announces Bihar Polls schedule

Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora declared that the Bihar Assembly election will be held in 3 phases- October 28, November 3 and November 7. 71, 94 and 78 Assembly constituencies will go to the polls in the first phase, second phase and third phase respectively. The counting of votes will take place on November 10.

He stated that more than 7 lakh units of hand sanitizers, about 46 lakh masks, 6 lakh PPE kits, 7.6 lakhs face kits, and 23 lakh hand gloves have been arranged. Furthermore, 7.2 crore single-use hand gloves have been specifically allocated for the voters. To decongest polling stations, the voting time has been increased by one hour. Thus, people will be able to cast their votes from 7 am to 6 pm barring for the areas affected by Left-wing extremism. 

Read: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Shares State's Sustainable Development Efforts At UN Climate Roundtable

Political situation in Bihar

The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243 members out of which 38 seats are reserved for SC and two for ST. In the 2015 state polls, the Mahagatbandhan comprising RJD, JD(U) and Congress won a whopping majority with 178 seats under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. On the other hand, the BJP-led alliance won from only 58 constituencies. 

However, a power tussle in the ruling alliance kicked off with Tejashwi Yadav's elevation as the Deputy Chief Minister and RJD's role as the single-largest party in the Bihar Assembly. On July 26, 2017, Nitish Kumar stepped down as the CM citing irreconcilable differences with RJD over corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav. After BJP extended support to its former ally, Kumar again took oath as the CM.

Read: 'Will Enter Politics If People Of My Home District Want': Bihar Ex-DGP Gupteshwar Pandey