Terming it the mother of all
elections, the Chief Election Commissioner of India Nasim Zaidi said that the
assembly elections in Bihar would be held in September-October. The election
commission (EC) has not finalized the schedule yet.
He said that the EC would have to
take into account several things such as the weather conditions, festivals,
exams, holidays, heavy monsoon, heavy rains, and floods before releasing the
exact dates for the assembly elections. Zaidi did not give any info about the
number of phases in which the elections will be carried out.
“Abuse of money is a big problem
in Bihar. Therefore, this time we are going in for more systematic efforts.
Certain legal amendments are yet to come from the Law Ministry. But within our
powers, we have launched expenditure monitoring,” Zaidi told the media.
He said that the EC would map all
the constituencies of Bihar into three categories. Police forces will be
deployed in the most sensitive areas right on time.
“…we will identify this time
persons who serve as a channel for distributing bribe or for distribution of
liquor, distribution of gifts. This assessment is still going on and we hope to
come up with a re-strategised expenditure monitoring which we will roll out at
an appropriate time,” said the Chief Election Commissioner.
The BJP is all set to fight the
combined strength of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitesh Kumar in the coming assembly
elections. On one hand, these elections would be an acid test for Narendar
Modi's wave of popularity, and on the
other, Lalu-Nitesh will be fighting for survival this time. A defeat in the
assembly elections would political death for both Lalu and Nitesh.
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