Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Tejashwi, Tej Pratap in fray for phase 2 polling on Tuesday

The second phase of elections in Bihar is set to take place tomorrow, November 3. It is being touted as the most crucial phase as voting is scheduled in 94 constituencies with 1,463 candidates in the fray. It is also vital because the fate of some popular leaders are at stake.

Over 2.85 crore voters will cast their votes in the second phase polling spread across 17 districts, all of which except Patna, Bhagalpur, and Nalanda are situated north of the Ganges.

Some prominent names to be contesting the third phase include Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav and brother Tej Pratap. 

The 31-year-old Tejashwi Yadav is hoping to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor against the Nitish Kumar government and is seeking reelection from the Raghopur constituency, while brother Tej Pratap has shifted his base from Mahua in Vaishali and is contesting from the Hassanpur seat in Samastipur district.  

RJD leaders Alok Kumar Mehta from Ujiyarpur and Shailesh Kumar from Bihpur are also in the fray. Former parliamentarian Anand Mohan's son Chetan Anand is contesting from Sheohar, while Shatrughan Sinha's son Luv will test his luck from Bankipur.

Pushpam Priya Choudhary of the Plurals Party and Nitin Naveen of the BJP will also contest from Bankipur. 

Ministers Nandkishore Yadav, Randhir Singh, and Shravan Kumar are also in the fray from Patna Sahib, Madhuban and Nalanda segments. The prestige of 27 MLAs of the Grand Alliance is at stake.

In the second phase election, 56 candidates of the RJD are in the fray. The party is in direct contest with the BJP on 27 seats and JD-U on 25 seats.

The BJP is contesting 46 seats and the JD-U 43 seats in the second phase tomorrow.

The Lok Janshakti Party will contest 52 seats while the Congress has fielded candidates for 24 seats. The CPI and CPM will fight on four constituencies each. The RLSP is contesting on 36 seats.

In the 2015 elections, the Rashtriya Janata Dal had bagged 33 of these seats followed by JD-U 30 and NDA 22 seats. The Congress had managed to win only 7 seats.

It is to be seen whether the RJD will manage to retain these seats or not. For the JD-U The anti-incumbency factor is riding high in the state and may play spoilsport. 

Voting for the third and last phase of election will take place on November 7. In this phase, 78 constituencies will to the polls. Counting of the votes will happen on November 10.