The Bihar assembly elections will be held in three phases from October 28 and the counting of votes will take place on November 10, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Friday.
According to ECI, the three-phase poll will be conducted on October 28, November 3 and November 7. In 2015, the state polls were held in five phases.
In the first phase, 71-assembly constituencies will go to polls with 31,000 polling stations set up for it.
In the second phase, 94 assembly constituencies with 42,000 polling stations dedicated for it.
In the third phase, 78 constituencies will have 33,500 polling stations.
Chief election commissioner Sunil Arora said that as per reports from Bihar’s chief electoral officer more than 700,000 units of hand sanitisers, 44.6 million masks, 600,000 personal protective equipment suits, 760,000 face shields, and 2.3 million gloves have been arranged for the polling staff.
The commission has also acquired another 7.2 million single-use hand gloves for use by electors to cast their vote at the polling station.
Arora said with the updation of the electoral rolls, 230,000 migrant voters, who have returned to the state, have been added to the list.
The polling time has also been increased by an hour from 7am to 6pm in the Bihar Assembly Election 2020.
The number of tables in a counting hall has been slashed by half—from 14 to seven. A maximum of 1,000 people will be allowed to vote at a polling station. It is a significant reduction from the earlier figure of 1,500.