Bihar Election: Campaigning ends for 1st Phase; 1,314 candidates in fray for 121 seats

Patna: The campaigning for the first phase of the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections ended at 5 pm on Tuesday. Campaigning has now been suspended under the Model Code of Conduct. Voting for the first phase is scheduled for November 6th, so candidates are not permitted to hold public meetings, road shows, or rallies. Voting Will Take Place On 121 Seats Voting will take place in 121 assembly seats across 18 districts in the state in the first phase. A total of 1,314 candidates are contesting these seats. These 18 districts include Madhepura, Saharsa, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Khagaria, Munger, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Nalanda, Patna, Bhojpur, and Buxar. Bihar Elections: How India makes its indelible ink for voting; Click for details 2,496 nomination papers were filed for these seats, of which 1,939 were found valid. 70 candidates later withdrew, leaving the total number of candidates at 1,314. Now Only Door-To-Door Campaigning Is Allowed According to Election Commission guidelines, after the end of campaigning, candidates can only engage in door-to-door campaigning. No public meetings or gatherings are permitted. Furthermore, election advertisements will not be published in any newspaper on November 5th and 6th. Candidates can only contact voters on a personal level. Election Personnel Preparations Intensify As campaigning concludes, administrative preparations have intensified. All polling personnel were called to collect their duty-related documents on Tuesday. On Wednesday, personnel will be handed over EVM and VVPAT machines, after which they will depart for polling stations. According to the Election Commission, polling personnel must arrive at polling stations by the night of November 5th so that voting can begin on time after the mock poll on the morning of November 6th. Voting will run from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., although voting will only continue until 5 p.m. in some sensitive constituencies. Bihar Election 2025: CPI-ML unveils 20 candidates; Can the Left force a bigger impact this time? Campaigning During Festivals This election campaign coincided with Diwali and Chhath, which limited political parties' campaigning. As campaigning progressed after the festivals, leaders focused more on public meetings, microphones, and road shows. Posters, banners, and hoardings were less common than before. All eyes are now on November 6th, when more than 17 million voters will cast their ballots in the first phase. With the first phase of election campaigning in Bihar coming to an end, candidates' public relations strategies and voter awareness will be their most powerful weapons. The results of the November 6th elections will determine the direction of power in Bihar.