As the first phase of polling began on Friday, Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary urged voters to cast their ballots considering the progress made in the state. He called upon eligible voters to transcend caste and religion and support Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the polls.
“Polling is taking place on the four Lok Sabha seats in Bihar regarding that I want to make a special request from the voters to cast their votes on ‘development, development and development.’ With the progressive work done by PM Modi in the last 10 years and the fight that he (PM) picked up against corruption, therefore common people have to rise above caste and religion and vote for PM Modi,” he said.
“People of Bihar are quite smart, they know very well whom to give the mandate and this time 40/40 seats will be accorded to BJP by them (people),” the Samrat Choudhary added.
Voting is currently in progress for four parliamentary constituencies in Bihar: Aurangabad, Gaya, Jamui, and Nawada.
Bihar will undergo voting in all seven phases. The second phase is scheduled for April 26, the third phase for May 7, the fourth phase for May 13, the fifth phase for May 20, the sixth phase for May 25, and the seventh phase for June 1. Vote counting will take place on June 4.
Mahagathbandhan, the opposition coalition in Bihar consisting of the RJD, Congress, and Left parties, declared that the RJD, its primary constituent, will contest 26 out of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats in the elections.
The NDA in Bihar has also reached a seat-sharing agreement with the Janata Dal-United (JDU) and the LJP for the Lok Sabha polls.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is poised to contest 17 seats, while the JD-U will contest 16 seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA, consisting of the BJP, JD(U), and LJP, secured a dominant victory by winning 39 out of 40 seats.
In the previous general elections, all four seats were won by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — the BJP in Aurangabad, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) in Gaya, and the then-united Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in both Jamui and Nawada. With 40 Lok Sabha seats, Bihar is regarded as one of the most crucial states in Indian politics.