First Phase of Bihar Elections: Some Interesting Facts

By Deepak Parvatiyar

October 7, 2015

5.00/5 (100.00%) 2 votes

With less than a week for the first phase of Bihar elections, electioneering is in full swing in Bihar. The first of the five-phase polling takes place on October 12. Following are some interesting facts about the regions that go to polls on October 12 in Bihar:

Total Constituencies to go to poll in the first phase: 49
Total Candidates in the fray in the first phase: 583

Total Polling Station – 12,686
Total Voters in the first phase: 1,35,35,586

Male Voters – 72.28 Lakh
Female Voters in Ist Phase – 63.07 Lakh

Key Issues

Issue of Development
Unemployment
Industrial Backwardness
Corruption
Growing crime graph
Drinking water problem
Poor roads and erratic electricity supply
Poor educational infrastructure
Migration of students for higher education
Neglect of rural areas

Crorepati candidates in the first phase – 146

Janata Dal (United) – 19 Crorepati candidates
Bharatiya Janata Party – 18 Crorepati Candidates
Rashtriya Janata Dal – 11 Crorepati Candidates

Average assets of candidates in the first phase – Rs. 1.44 crore

Richest and poorest candidates in the first phase

Richest: Ajit Sharma, Congress, Bhagalpur. Assets worth Rs. 26.97 Crore. Sharma is far ahead of the second richest candidate in the fray, the RJD candidate from Teghra, Virendra Mahto, who is worth Rs. 7.60 crore.
Poorest Candidates: In all, 48 candidates in the fray in the first phase have no cash in hand while the BJP candidate from Amarpur, Mrinal Shekhar and the RJD candidate from Katoria, Sweety Hembrem have no assets at their disposal. The LJP candidate from Kahalgaon, Neeraj Mandal, has assets worth 10,000 only.

Average age of Candidates in the first phase – 49 years

Number of candidates below 45 years – 33
Oldest candidate – Narayan Yadav (RJD) from Sahebpur, 80 years old
Youngest candidate – Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s nephew Prince Raj (LJP) from Kalyanpur, 26 years old

Candidates with at least a bachelor’s degree

Doctors – 2
Engineers – 9
PhD – 7
MBA – 2
Post Graduate – 13
Law Graduate – 6
Graduate – 15

Candidates with criminal records in the first phase: 174. Of them 130 candidates who are contesting from 37 seats faced serious non-bailable offences.

Number of candidates facing murder charges: 16 (Including seven Independent candidates).
Candidate with largest number of murder charges: Pradeep Kumar of JD(U) from Warsaliganj constituency with four pending murder related cases against him
Number of candidates facing attempt to murder charges: 37 (Ramswarup Yadav, an Independent from Hisua constituency, faces five charges related to attempt to murder)
Number of candidates with records of crime against women: 11

Total number of candidates in the first phase with no criminal records against them: 37

Party-wise candidates with criminal records in the first phase

BJP – 14
CPI — 14
JD(U) – 11
SP – 9
RJD – 8
BSP –8
LJP –8
CPI(M) – 8
Congress – 6
Independents – 45

Results on these 49 seats in 2010

Janata Dal (United) – 29
Bharatiya Janata party – 13
Rashtriya Janata Dal – 4
Congress – 1
Communist Party of India – 1
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha – 1

Party-wise candidates in the fray in the first phase of 2015 Bihar elections

BJP – 27
JD(U) – 24
RJD – 17
Congress – 8
LJP – 13
CPI – 25
Bahujan Samaj Party – 41
Samajwadi Party – 18
CPI(Marxist) – 12
Independents – 192

Interesting fact: Two Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used in five constituencies where the number of candidates exceeds to 18. These constituencies are Jamui, Mohiuddin Nagar, Morva, Samastipur and Sheikhpura.
Candidate to watch in the first phase: Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s nephew Prince Raj (LJP) is making his election debut from Kalyanpur in Samastipur district where he is facing formidable Janata Dal-United candidate and Ram Vilas’s cousin Maheswar Hazari.

Key constituencies in the first phase:

Tarapur
The Hindustani Awam Morcha’s state president and veteran politician Shakuni Chaudhary is contesting from his old turf Tarapur in Munger and is pitted against Mewalal Chaudhar of JD(U)
Bhagalpur
Arijit Sashwat, son of former state minister and Bhagalpur MLA Ashwini Choubey, now a BJP member of Parliament from Buxar, is contesting on a BJP ticket against sitting Congress MLA Ajit Sharma.
Khagaria
Shakuni Chaudhary’s son Rajesh Kumar alias Rohit, is pitted against sitting JD(U) MLA of JD(U) Poonam Devi Yadav in Khagaria.
Kahalgaon
Sitting Congress MLA and former speaker of Bihar assembly Sadanand Singh is seeking reelection from Kahalgaon and is pitted against LJP’s Niraj Kumar Mandal, SP’s Shobhakant Mandal, BSP’s Manoj Kumar Yadav, CPI’s Sanjit Suman and CPM’s Sanjiv Kumar.
Alauli (SC)
State LJP president Pashupati Kumar Paras, a brother of LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan, is pitted against RJD’s Chandan Kumar and CPI’s Manoj Sada in Alauli. In the 2010 state assembly elections, Ramchandra Sada of Janata Dal (United) had by defeating the then sitting MLA, Paras.
Jamui
Former minister Narendra Singh’s son Ajay Pratap has got the BJP ticket despite protests from alliance partner LJP. Sitting MLA Pratap is locked in a straight fight with RJD’s Vijay Prakash here.
Chakai
In Chakai, sitting MLA Sumit Kumar Singh, another son of Narendra Singh, is fighting as an independent after he was denied ticket by the NDA. He is pitted against LJP’s Vijay Singh and RJD’s Savitri Devi.

- See more at: http://www.elections.in/blog/first-phase-of-bihar-elections-some-interesting-facts/#sthash.XPuZ3QGj.dpuf

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