The electoral battle in Bihar intensifies as 26 seats prepare for polls

The two alliances have now intensified their campaign for the remaining 26 seats with the Lok Sabha elections over in 14 of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats.

If voting in the first three phases covered varied layers of Bihar from the rough hills of Gaya and Aurangabad to the hot and humid Seemanchal the remaining four polling phases will see hectic electioneering in the sylvan environment of Nalanda, politically crucial Patna and rice-rich plains of Ara and Buxar.

In the remaining four phases, the BJP has maximum stakes as the party won 18 of the remaining 26 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

While JD(U) competes from eight, in the last four phases, Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP from three seats. Although the BJP contests only 17 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, in the last four phases, 15 of them will see polling.

Of the 26 seats in the remaining four phases that will go to polls, RJD contests on 13 seats, while Congress has chosen five seats for its candidates. Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP will compete in four seats, while VIP and HAM (S) will compete in two and one seats. RJD gave CPI(ML) seat to Arah. The BJP had won 22 seats in 2014, but it conceded five of its sitting seats to accommodate allies.

In the remaining four phases, as many as four BJP Union ministers are pitted against their rivals. The list of ministers includes party firebrand leader Giriraj Singh, who is locked up against former JNUSU president and CPI nominee Kanhaiya Kumar and Tanveer Hasan of RJD in a triangular struggle in Begusarai.

Polling will take place in the fourth phase on April 29, 5 on May 6, 6 on May 12 and 7 on May 19. The counting is scheduled for May 23.