Three-day polling in Bihar, Jharkhand

The Election Commission announced the dates for Assembly elections in Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand. The polls will be held in three phases on February 3, 15 and 23, 2005.

While it will be a one-day polling on February 3 in Haryana, some constituencies in the other two states will also go to polls the same day. The second and third phase of polls would cover the other parts of Bihar and Jharkhand, Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishnamurthy said here today.

Counting of votes in all the three states would take place on February 27 and the election process would be complete by March 5, 2005, he said.

"The model code of conduct comes into force with immediate effect," Krishnamurthy said. "If there are any violations, we will take action," Krishnamurthy warned.

He also said electronic voting machines would be used in all the three states. Since the process of voter identity cards had, however, not been complete in the three states, the poll panel had decided to prescribe an alternative for identification of the voter, he said.

Krishnamurthy said all the three states had been asked to execute the non-bailable warrants, arrest anti-social elements and launch a drive to unearth illegal arms. The central paramilitary forces would be deployed in all the three states and for this consultations with the Union home ministry had been completed, he added.

Marking a departure from the past, Krishnamurthy said this time a general observer would be deployed in every constituency while an expenditure observer would be deployed for the district. Earlier, the poll panel used to deploy two general observers and one expenditure observer for every district.

As a measure to maintain secrecy of ballot, the Election Commission had decided not to allow any camera or videography inside polling booths. However, he said the commission would carry out videography outside sensitive and hyper-sensitive booths to monitor the elections.

The commission had also asked all the states to transfer all government officials who had completed their three-year tenures in a particular district so that impartiality of the poll was maintained.

The polls are expected to be difficult in terms of law and order as Bihar and Jharkhand are not only troubled by the naxal menace, widescale rigging and booth capturing and poll-related violence are often reported from all these states going to the polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already announced that they will register their complaint with the poll panel over the alleged misuse of official machinery by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad. The ministry will be diverting 22 trains to ferry the rally participants to be held in Jehanabad next week.