The Election Commission announced the schedule for Bihar assembly elections today. The state polls will be the first major state election to be held in the middle of coronavirus crisis. The term of the 243-member Bihar legislative assembly comes to an end on November 29.

The Bihar assembly elections will be held in three phases, chief election commissioner Sunil Arora announced on Friday. In the first phase, 71 seats will go to polls, 94 seats will be in phase-2 and 78 seats will go to polls in the third phase. Addressing the press conference, he said these will be perhaps the largest election anywhere in the world during Covid-19, and listed precautionary measures taken by the poll panel and authorities.

As the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) comes into force, hate speech, fake news, and malicious propaganda will be dealt with harshly, said the CEC. “If required, special observers will also be deployed for expenditure monitoring and law and order contingency etc,” Sunil Arora said.

“Polling stations will have sanitisers, masks, soaps etc in view of the pandemic. The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) stands enforced now. Political parties should upload online criminal antecedents of candidates, why they were selected and why those with no such antecedents were not selected,” added CEC Sunil Arora.

“Covid-19 patients who’re quarantined will be able to cast their vote on the last day of poll, at their respective polling stations, under the supervision of health authorities. This is beside the option of postal facility already extended to them,” CEC Sunil Arora said.

He added that the polling time has been increased by one hour and will be held from 7am to 6pm.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who leads a coalition with the BJP, will fight for a fourth term in these polls, with the opposition RJD of jailed former Chief Minister Lalu Yadav and the Congress challenging him.