Assembly elections in Bihar, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set for a battle against a united Janata Parivar, are likely to be held sometime in September-October

New Delhi: Assembly elections in Bihar, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set for a battle against a united Janata Parivar, are likely to be held sometime in September-October when extensive central forces and a reworked expenditure monitoring system will be deployed to curb money and muscle power.

The electoral rolls will be ready on 31 July, chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi said, terming the polls in Bihar as “mother of all elections”. Going by precedents, the election timings would be somewhere in September or October, he said, adding they are yet to begin the process on finalising a schedule.

He said the Election Commission (EC) will have to take into account weather conditions, festivals, exams, holidays, heavy monsoon, heavy rains and floods before arriving at exact schedule.

Zaidi also refused to go into the number of phases in which the assembly polls will be held. “Abuse of money is a big problem in Bihar. Therefore, this time we are going in for more systematic efforts. Certain legal amendments are yet to come from the law ministry. But within our powers, we have launched expenditure monitoring,” Zaidi said in an interview.

He said the EC has undertaken mapping of all constituencies of Bihar into three categories. Where the EC finds maximum sensitivity, it plans to deploy central police forces “well in time.”

“We will identify this time persons who serve as a channel for distributing bribe or for distribution of liquor, distribution of gifts. This assessment is still going on and we hope to come up with a re-strategized expenditure monitoring which we will roll out at an appropriate time,” he said.

PTI