As Bihar votes, Shashi Tharoor remind voters of migrant crisis

As voting for phase-1 of Bihar Assembly elections began on Wednesday, Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor reminded voters of the struggles that migrant workers went through at the beginning of nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.

"The tears in your eyes, the blisters on your feet. Do you remember everything? The ones who are voting today," Tharoor wrote on Twitter.

Voting began in 71 constituencies spread across 16 districts in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections on Wednesday at 7 am and the voter turnout was recorded at 18.29 per cent till 11.30 am.

This is the first election that is being held amid COVID-19 pandemic.

As many as 1,066 candidates are in the fray including 42 from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), 35 from Janata Dal (United), 29 from BJP, 21 from Congress and 8 from Left parties.

Bihar is witnessing a triangular contest between the ruling JDU-BJP alliance, the Mahagathbandhan or the grand alliance (RJD, Congress and others) and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which is eying the role of a kingmaker in case of a hung Assembly. The elections will decide if Nitish Kumar will win a fourth term as Chief Minister.

On one side is the NDA which includes JD-U (contesting 115 seats), BJP (110 seats), Vikassheel Insaan Party (11 seats) and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindust Awam Morcha (7 seats).

Mahagathbandhan, which picked Tejashwi Yadav as chief ministerial candidate, constitutes RJD (144 seats) and the Congress with 70 seats. Other alliance partners include the CPI-ML (19 seats), CPI (6 seats), and the CPIM (4 seats).

LJP is contesting 136 seats on its own and has fielded candidates against all JD-U nominees and only a few against BJP.

Polling for the second phase is to take place on November 3 and for the third phase on November 7. The counting of votes will be done on November 10.

( With inputs from ANI )