|
Malegaon:
The first of the six phases of the month-long elections to the
Bihar state assembly is to be held Thursday on October 21. In this
phase, as many as 47 assembly constituencies of the Bihar Assembly
will go to the poll tomorrow.
About 10.6 million voters in these
47 seats will decide the fate of 635 candidates in the fray for
the first lot of the 243 assembly seats.
In 25 out of the total 47 seats in
this phase, Muslim votes are crucial where they constitute more
that 20% votes. 10 out of these 25 constituencies have more than
50% voters that include Amour in Purnia district and Kochadhaman
in Kishanganj district having 74.33 and 74.22 per cent Muslim
voters respectively.
As usual, all major political
parties have fielded Muslim candidates in these 25 seats and a
clear and imminent division of votes would certainly benefit
Janata Dal (JD-U)-Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) ruling alliance.
Interestingly the alliance itself has fielded Muslim candidates on
only 5 seats.
Analysts are of the opinion that
Muslim voters are upset over the Ayodhya verdict and the mood in
the Muslim dominated constituencies are against Congress and the
ruling alliance. However, the Muslims in India are knwon for
splitting their votes among too many Muslim candidates and even
from these areas, non-Muslim candidates are elected. In the first
phase of the election, the 47 seats that will go to votes
tomorrow, it will be tested in 25 seats once again if Muslims are
losers as always .... or kingmakers.
Factfile of
the first phase
Number of assembly constituencies - 47
Total voters - 10.7 million (5,678,567 men and 5,022,230 women)
Total number of candidates - 635
Total number of woman candidates - 52
Assembly constituency with maximum candidates - Kadwa (22
candidates)
Assembly constituency with minimum candidates - Singheshwar
(Scheduled Caste constituency - seven candidates)
Party-wise list of candidates - Bahujan Samaj Party (45),
Bharatiya Janata Party (21), Communist Party India (11), Communist
Party of India-Marxist (7), Congress (47), Nationalist Congress
Party (33), Janata Dal-United (26), Rashtriya Janata Dal (31) and
other parties 156
Independent candidates - 238
Electronic voting machines to be used - 25,728
Largest assembly constituency area-wise - Saharsa
Largest assembly constituency voter-wise - Saharsa
Total number of constituencies
having more than 20% Muslims - 25
The lowest number of Muslim
candidates is in Forbesganj (35.15% Muslim voters) in Araria
district where only one Muslim candidate Kafil Ahmed is contesting
on the BSP ticket.
The highest number is in Bahadurganj
(69.20%) in Kishanganj where out of total 16 candidates 11 are
Muslims.
|
Comment on this article
|
Quick links