PATNA: Conducting polls amid the COVID-19 pandemic was a 'big challenge' said the Election Commission of India (ECI) as the final phase of Bihar Assembly elections came to an end of Saturday.
This is not a mere assumption, but something the chief of state election commission echoed.
Speaking to the media, on the successful completion of all the three rounds of polls, the chief electoral officer of Bihar HR Shrinivas admitted that it was a big challenge for the commision to conduct safe and peaceful Bihar elections amid the COVID-19 crisis.
He said that it was also a big challenge to conduct elections in Bihar as the population density is highest.
"Despite of corona crisis, around 18 lakh new voters were enrolled, including 2.30 lakh migrant labourers, who returned to Bihar due to COVID-19 outbreak," he further said.
He also said that the Election Commission accepted all the challenges and fared well with the support of state machinery, police forces and all poll personnel.
He said around 81 different posters were designed and printed to create awarness among people for increasing the polling participation this election amid pandemic. A theme song was also made, aprt from 16 audio messages and dozens of vedio messages.
According to H Srinivasan, the voting percentage on the last day was 56.12 with 2.35 crore voters casting their vote on Saturday
On the other hand, state police under the nodal officer of IG rank Dr KK Singh, seized more than Rs 20 crores of rupees during the vehicles checking.