Overview
- More than 3.7 crore voters are deciding the fate of 1,302 candidates across 45,399 polling centres, including 40,073 in rural areas.
- Over 400,000 security personnel have been deployed across sensitive districts, including stretches along the Nepal border.
- The phase concentrates on Seemanchal and adjoining border belts with significant minority populations, a pivotal arena for both the NDA and the INDIA bloc.
- Several ministers from the Nitish Kumar government and other senior leaders are in the fray, building on a first phase that saw turnout above 65 percent.
- Eight assembly bypolls are also underway in J&K, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Punjab, Mizoram, Odisha and Telangana, with several vacancies caused by deaths or a disqualification; results will be declared on 14 November, and Zee News reports the BJP recently swept local-body polls in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.