Voting underway for eight Bihar Legislative Council seats, fate of 150 candidates at stake

Patna, Oct 23 : Polling for eight seats of the Teachers’ and Graduates’ constituencies in the biennial elections to the Bihar Legislative Council began at 8 am on Friday amid tight security, with 150 candidates in the fray.

The eight seats comprise four Graduate constituencies — Patna, Darbhanga, Tirhut and Koshi — and four Teachers’ constituencies — Patna, Darbhanga, Tirhut and Saran.

According to the Election Commission, 11.08 per cent of voters in the Teachers’ constituencies and 5.86 per cent in the Graduate constituencies had exercised their franchise till 10 am.

Among the Teachers’ constituencies, Saran recorded the highest polling percentage at 13.56, followed by Patna at 12.88 per cent, Darbhanga at 12 per cent and Tirhut at 5.88 per cent.

In the Graduate constituencies, Darbhanga recorded 8 per cent polling, followed by Patna at 5.50 per cent, Koshi at 5.14 per cent and Tirhut at 4.81 per cent.

A total of 5,32,847 voters are eligible to cast their votes to elect their representatives. Polling is being conducted at 933 stations, including 598 in Graduate constituencies and 335 in Teachers’ constituencies. Voting will continue until 4 pm, while counting of votes is scheduled for October 27.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Opposition Grand Alliance and Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party have fielded candidates in the elections. In some constituencies, candidates belonging to alliance partners are also contesting against one another, adding to the electoral contest.

The JD(U) has fielded Neeraj Kumar from the Patna Graduate constituency and Abhishek Jha from Tirhut Graduate constituency. In the Teachers’ constituencies, Ghanshyam Rai is contesting from Darbhanga and Anand Pushkar from Saran.

The BJP candidates include Nawal Kishore Yadav from the Patna Teachers’ constituency, Dr N K Yadav from the Koshi Graduate constituency, Sarvesh Kumar from Darbhanga Graduate constituency and Narendra Prasad Singh from the Tirhut Teachers’ constituency.

Within the Opposition Grand Alliance, the RJD and the Congress have fielded candidates against each other in several constituencies amid a lack of consensus on seat-sharing. The two parties are directly contesting against each other in the Patna Teachers’, Patna Graduate, Darbhanga Graduate and Koshi Graduate constituencies.

The RJD candidates include Sanjeev Kumar Singh from Patna Teachers’, Dilip Kumar from Patna Graduate, Nitesh Kumar from Koshi Graduate, Anil Kumar Jha from Darbhanga Graduate, Prof Jairam Yadav from Saran Teachers’, Dr Rashmi Vinayak Gautam from Tirhut Graduate and Kunwar Rai from Darbhanga Teachers’ constituencies.

The Congress has fielded Dr Sanjay Yadav from Patna Teachers’, Dr Asadullah Khan from Patna Graduate, Rajnikant Pathak from Darbhanga Graduate, Manoj Kumar Jaiswal from Koshi Graduate and Dr Madan Mohan Jha from Darbhanga Teachers’ constituencies.

The Jan Suraaj Party is contesting all eight seats. It has fielded Dr Anuj Singh from Patna Graduate, Dr Mohammad Imtiaz Noorani from Darbhanga Graduate, Dr Vimohan Kumar from Tirhut Graduate and Rajnish Ranjan from Koshi Graduate constituencies.

Its candidates in the Teachers’ constituencies are Divya Jyoti from Patna, S P Rai from Darbhanga, Afaq Ahmad from Saran and Shyam Nandan Yadav from Tirhut.

Of the 150 candidates contesting the elections, 90 are in the fray from Graduate constituencies and 60 from Teachers’ constituencies.