Nitish vs Lalu: the ballot battle begins

Patna: The first of the six phases of the month-long elections to the Bihar state Assembly is to be held on Thursday.
Bihar's borders with Nepal and West Bengal have been sealed and security put on a high alert as the stage is set for the first phase of Assembly Elections on Thursday in which 47 of 243 constituencies go to polls.
Superintendent of Police of Madhubani district Ajitabh Kumar said Modhwapur, Khutauni, Fulparas and Laukaha areas in the district have been sealed off and watch was being kept by SSB and other security agencies on any possible movement of trouble-makers.

Similarly, a special watch is being kept in Supaul, Purnia, Kishanganj and Araria districts since this morning with specially-trained dogs mobilised for the purpose. Director-General of Police Neelmani said that elaborate security arrangements have been made to ensure that the elections are free, fair and peaceful.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer Kumar Anshumali said, "Efforts have been made to man most of the polling centres with CPMF personnel. Also police patrolling between one polling station and another would be intensified."
For the first time, he said, the Election Commission has introduced live webcast of the voting process from 20 per cent of the booths directly to be monitored by the district election officers, the office of Chief Electoral Officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh and the Election Commission in New Delhi.
The entire process of voting would be videographed, Anshumali said.
"Over 45,000 personnel of the Central paramilitary forces have been made available by the Centre for free, fair and peaceful polls," a senior official in the home department said.
The state government had demanded 600 companies of central paramilitary forces, but the Central government agreed to provide 450 companies for the six-phase polls, an official said. Each company comprises 100 personnel and the deployment would be made directly under the supervision of the Election Commission, officials said.
Prominent among the 631, including 52 women, contestants are senior Janata Dal (United) ministers, Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Narendra Narain Yadav, Renu Kumari, Hari Prasad Sah,
Congress nominee Ranjeet Ranjan, wife of incarcerated former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, State Congress chief Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Congress candidate Lovely
Anand.
The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are contesting all 47 seats. The ruling JD(U) will be contesting 26 seats and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party in 21 seats.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is contesting 31 seats and its ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) 16 seats, while the Communist Party of India(Marxist) has put up candidates at seven seats. Communist Party of India has put up candidates in 11 seats, CPI(ML) in 17 and Nationalist Congress Party in 33 seats.
Around 1.07 crore, including 50.2 lakh women and 3829 service voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise at 10,454 polling centres spread over the constituencies where the commission has plans to use 11968 (CU) and 13760 (BU) Electronic Voting Machines.
Multi-cornered contests are lined up in all 47 Assembly segments of Saharsa, Madhepura, Madhubani, Supaul, Purnia, Araria, Katihar and Kishanganj districts.
Major issues included post-Kosi flood management, rehabilitation of the displaced and a pending railway projectin Madhepura.
Election officials said polling would be held from 7 AM to 5 PM in all constituencies barring the Maoist-hit ones where elections would end at 3 PM.
Here is a factfile of the first phase:
Number of assembly constituencies - 47
Total voters - 10.7 million (5,678,567 men and 5,022,230 women)
Total number of candidates - 631
Total number of woman candidates - 52
Assembly constituency with maximum candidates - Kadwa (22 candidates)
Assembly constituency with minimum candidates - Singheshwar (Scheduled Caste constituency - seven candidates)
Party-wise list of candidates - Bahujan Samaj Party (45), Bharatiya Janata Party (21), Communist Party India (11), Communist Party of India-Marxist (7), Congress (47), Nationalist Congress Party (33), Janata Dal-United (26), Rashtriya Janata Dal (31) and other parties 156
Independent candidates - 238
Electronic voting machines to be used - 25,728
Largest assembly constituency area-wise - Saharsa
Largest assembly constituency voter-wise - Saharsa