The Election Commission (EC) has started the preparations for upcoming Bihar Assembly election, scheduled to take place in October-November. The EC has brought 32,000 EVMs for this purpose and has already started the trial of all the EVMs stored at Phulwari Sharif. The trial is being done under the supervision of 25 engineers and District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police are monitoring the whole process. Sources told Zee Media that out of 32,000 EVMS, the trials of 16,000 EVMs have been completed so far.
The EC has started preparations at a time when Bihar is witnessing huge spike in coronavirus COVID-19 cases and several political parties including the RJD, Congress and LJP are calling for postponement of Assembly election due to coronavirus spread.
Sources said that RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has decided to meet the EC along with the other alliance partners of the Mahagathbandhan in order to urge the poll body to postpone the Assembly poll till the situation normalizes in the state.
Tejashwi alleged that the NDA is doing virtual rallies and they are “vultures who want to hold elections on dead bodies.” He also said that elections will have no meaning if people do not come out and vote because of the pandemic.
Few days ago, Tejashwi had slammed the ruling BJP-JDU alliance of doing virtual rallies at a time when the state is facing coronavirus pandemic. The Yadav scion had said that voters will not come out to exercise their freanchise due to coronavirus.
BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Chirag Paswan has also backed RJD’s call for deferring Bihar elections due to coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Chirag had said that the EC should consider the possibility of risk to people if election is held during coronavirus outbreak and the polling percentage would also remain low due to the deadly viral disease.
