Bihar election might prove to be a litmus test for many

Bihar has a great history; it's a land of great empires, but of late, it is the poorest state in India with the lowest per capita income in the country

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The Bihar assembly elections have been announced, and now all eyes are glued to know the final result on November 14, when votes will be counted.

The Bihar election is important for various reasons. This is the election in which the credibility of the Election Commission is at stake, and either way, a serious debate will ensue after the results are pronounced about whether votes were polled and counted with fairness or not and the result was not manipulated to suit the interest of a particular party.

The role of the Election Commission has never been discussed so much since the days when TN Seshan was the chief election commissioner, who should be credited for making the EC a powerful institution that refused to toe the government line. He embarked on a road which gave the EC ferocious teeth to bite big political parties, powerful prime ministers and chief ministers and cleansed the electoral system at a time when elections meant deaths and destruction at polling booths on a polling day.