"Bihar waiting to show the path of change": Harish Rawat on Bihar Assembly elections

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], October 7 (ANI): Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat on Tuesday said that Bihar is waiting to show the path of change to the entire country in the upcoming assembly polls.
Speaking with ANI, Harish Rawat informed that the INDI alliance is deciding on seat-sharing and will soon announce the candidates.
"Bihar is waiting to show the path of change to the whole country. Our alliance is discussing the sharing of seats, and we will soon announce our candidates. The alliance will contest the elections in a coordinated manner under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav, and we will be victorious," Harish Rawat said.
Harish Rawat said that the people of Bihar will vote on the basis of employment opportunities, women's empowerment and law and order situation.
"People want to bring an alliance that will eradicate unemployment, control inflation, provide opportunities for jobs and improve the law situation to empower women," he said.
Speaking about Congress allegations of "vote theft," Harish Rawat said, "It is a national issue. You have seen how vote chori happens. This is an issue in every village, every locality. A few days before the election, some new names were added, who have no connection with the village and locality. They are the BJP's portable vote. This is a systematic vote-theft."
The Election Commission has announced the schedule for the Bihar Assembly elections. The 243 Assembly seats will go to the polls in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with counting of votes to be held on November 14.
Apart from announcing the schedule for the Bihar assembly elections, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar decided to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists throughout the country.
In these elections, the NDA will be up against the INDIA bloc, led by Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, the Congress, the CPI (ML) led by Deepankar Bhattacharya, the CPI, the CPM, and Mukesh Sahani's Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP). This time, Bihar will also see the entry of a new player in the form of Prashant Kishor and his party Jan Suraaj.
The total number of electors in the final list stands at 7.42 crore, while there were 7.89 crore electors as of June 24 this year. An Election Commission press release stated that 65 lakh voters were removed from the draft list, and the number of electors in the draft list as of August 1, 2025, stood at 7.24 crore.
It stated that ineligible electors removed from the draft list stood at 3.66 lakh, while 21.53 lakh eligible electors were added to the draft list (Form 6), taking the total to 7.42 crore voters.
Over 1.63 lakh electors have been added in 14 assembly constituencies in Patna, according to the district administration. (ANI)