The Election Commission of India (ECI) is set to announce the schedule for the Bihar Assembly Elections today at 4 PM. The announcement will be made from Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. This follows a two-day comprehensive review of poll preparedness in the state by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The team held meetings in Patna to assess security arrangements, logistics, and overall enforcement preparedness with top state officials. The goal is to ensure transparent, inclusive, peaceful, and inducement-free elections.
The tenure of the current 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly is set to end on November 22, 2025. The upcoming election will decide the composition of the new assembly. In the previous assembly elections, held in October-November 2020, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed the government, with Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister. Subsequently, in August 2022, Nitish Kumar shifted alliances, leading the Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] to join the Mahagathbandhan (MGB) and form a new government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). However, in January 2024, another shift occurred when Nitish Kumar and the JD(U) rejoined the NDA, again forming a government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ahead of the schedule announcement, the ECI met with representatives from various national and state political parties, including the BJP, JD(U), RJD, Congress, CPI(ML), and AAP, to gather suggestions on the election schedule. Several parties have requested that the elections be conducted after Chhath Puja, a major festival in Bihar, to maximize voter turnout, as many residents working outside the state return home for the festivities. The JD(U) has specifically requested single-phase polling immediately after Chhath Puja to facilitate voting for migrant workers. The BJP has echoed this sentiment, advocating for elections in one or two phases with the deployment of paramilitary forces in sensitive areas to boost voter confidence. The previous Assembly elections in 2020 were conducted in three phases.
The announcement comes shortly after the publication of the final electoral roll on September 30, which registered a total of 7.42 crore electors. The ECI has also announced 17 new initiatives aimed at enhancing the electoral process in Bihar, with plans to implement these reforms nationwide in the future. Key initiatives include webcasting at all polling stations and allowing political parties to set up polling agent booths within 100 meters of polling stations. Voters will see colored photographs of candidates alongside their names on EVM ballots, and voter slips will feature larger fonts to assist voters in finding their polling booths. For the first time, voters will be allowed to carry their mobile phones to the outer area of polling stations. The ECI is also promoting the use of the ECI Net application to modernize electioneering. The Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in Bihar was conducted with accuracy, with the participation of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) at over 90,000 polling stations.
