Voting begins for 71 seats in the phase 1 of Bihar assembly elections

More than 2 crore are eligible to vote to decide the fate of 1066 candidates in fray for 71 seats in the first phase of the Bihar assembly elections beginning Wednesday, the first time a state is going to polls during a pandemic.

Polls for remaining phases will be held on November 3 (94 seats) and Nov 7 (78 seats), and results will be declared on Nov 10. Here’s a look

Jamui: Commonwealth Games gold medallist shooter Shreyasi Singh (BJP) vs sitting MLA Vijay Prakash Yadav (RJD), who is the younger brother of former Union minister Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav. Chirag Paswan, who represents Jamui in the Lok Sabha, has assured LJP's support to the young debutant

Imamganj:(NDA candidate) Hindustani Awam Morcha president Jitan Ram Manjhi, who is the sitting MLA and former CM vs RJD’s Uday Narayan Chaudhary (former speaker).

Tarapur: Divya Prakash (RJD), daughter of former Union minister Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav vs Mewa Lal Choudhary (JDU)

Gaya town: Cabinet minister Prem Kumar (BJP) vs Cong’s Akhauri Prem Kumar Onkar Nath

Lakhisarai: Labour resources dept minister Vijay Kumar Sinha vs Congress’ Amaresh Kumar

Banka: BJP minister Ram Narayan Mandal vs RJD’s Javed Iqbal Ansari

Jehanabad: Cabinet minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma (JDU) vs RJD’s Kr Krishna Mohan (Suday Yadav)

Dinara: Science and tech minister Jai Kumar Singh (JDU) vs BJP rebel Rajendra Prasad Singh (LJP) vs RJD’s Vijay Kr Mandal

Rajpur: A JDU stronghold. Transport minister Santosh Kumar Nirala takes on Cong’s Vishwanath Ram and LJP’s Nirbhaya Kr Nirala

Sasaram: Ashok Kumar, who won the seat on an RJD ticket in 2015, is fighting from JDU, against Rajesh Kumar Gupta (RJD) and LJP’s Rameshwar Prasad.