More than 93 lakh voters will choose from 50 candidates across five constituencies during phase-2 polls in Bihar on Friday, April 26.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), a BJP ally, has fielded candidates in all the seats, hoping to hold on to four and wrest Kishanganj from the Congress.
Kishanganj is key for JDU as it's Bihar’s only parliamentary constituency where Muslims are in majority. There will be yet another three-cornered contest between Congress MP Mohd Javed, JD(U) runner up of 2019 Mujahid Alam and Akhtarul Iman of the AIMIM.
Purnea has just seven candidates, the lowest for the five seats. A three-cornered battle is being fought there with JD(U) MP Santosh Kushwaha aiming for a hat-trick, but facing a stiff challenge from three-time former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who is contesting as an Independent, and RJD’s Bima Bharti, an MLA who recently crossed over from Nitish Kumar's party.
In neighbouring Katihar, former Union minister Tariq Anwar, who founded the NCP with Sharad Pawar and PA Sangma, returning to the Congress fold later, is trying to wrest the constituency from JD(U)’s Dulal Chandra Goswami, to whom he had lost by a thin margin last time.
Another keenly watched constituency is Bhagalpur, which the Congress is contesting for the first time in over two decades. Party MLA Ajeet Sharma is posing a tough challenge to JD(U) MP Ajay Mandal.
In Banka, JD(U) MP Giridhari Yadav is locked in yet another straight contest with RJD’s Jay Prakash Naryan Yadav, from whom he had wrested the seat five years ago.
Among the 50 candidates in the fray for the second phase, only three are women, with RJD’s Bima Bharti in Purnea being the lone female contesting for a prominent party like the RJD.
The total number of voters for the five seats is 93.96 lakh, including 45.15 lakh women and 306 belonging to the third gender.
Young voters form more than one-third of the electorate, with 13.77 lakh in the age group of 18-19 years and another 20.86 lakh aged between 20 and 29 years.
Special arrangements will be in place for 89,743 persons with disabilities and 79,085 voters aged over 85 years.
More than 150 companies of paramilitary forces will assist the local police in ensuring free and fair polls, officials said.
The elections will take place at a time when the state is reeling under an intense heatwave, with the mercury shooting past the 40-degrees Celsius mark in most parts.
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