Ph 1 voting today, 37.5mn to seal fate of 1,314 in fray

Around 37.5 million voters will exercise their franchise in the high-stakes first-phase of the Bihar assembly polls for 121 seats on Thursday to decide the fate of 1,314 candidates in the fray, including Opposition Grand Alliance's chief ministerial candidate and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, deputy chief ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

- Anirban Guha Roy

The second-phase polling for the remaining 122 seats will be held on November Il and the results will be declared on November l4.

Among the key contestants fighting the first-phase polls, Tejashwi Yadav is eyeing for a hat-trick from in Raghopur, a constituency formerly represented by his chief minister parents Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi. He is pitted against BJP’s Satish Kumar , who had defeated Rabri Devi in 2010 while contesting on a JD(U) ticket, as well as Jan Suraj Party's Chanchal Singh.

Several key ministers in the Nitish Kumar-led government, including both deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, will also have their electoral fates decided in the first phase of polls, while Choudhary, who is in the poll fray after a long gap, is contesting from his home turf Tarapur, Sinha hopes to retain Lakhisarai for the fourth consecutive term.