In Bihar, campaigning for the First Phase of State Assembly Elections in 71 constituencies ended today.<br />'' <br />''Polling will be held in these constituencies spread over 16 districts on Wednesday.<br />'' <br />''In this phase, several constituencies are Naxal-affected and sensitive from security point of view.<br />'' <br />''In the first phase, total 1,066 candidates are in fray and over 2.14 crore electorates are eligible to exercise their franchise.<br />'' <br />''Gaya district has the maximum number of voters where 29 lakh 49 thousand electorate will decide the fate of total 172 candidates in 10 segments.<br />'' <br />''In this phase, BJP is contesting from 29 seats, JD(U) from 35 and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) from six Assembly seats.<br />'' <br />''The Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) has fielded one candidate.<br />'' <br />''On the other hand, from the Grand Alliance RJD is contesting from 42 seats, while Congress has fielded 21 candidates.<br />'' <br />''The CPI-ML has eight candidates in fray.<br />'' <br />''A large number of rebels are contesting against their authorized party candidates.<br />'' <br />''Lok Jan Shakti Party which is contesting on 41 seats has given tickets to several rebel leaders.<br />'' <br />''Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) has also fielded 40 candidates.<br />'' <br />''Political fortunes of eight Cabinet Ministers including Prem Kumar, Ram Narayan Mandal and Jai Kumar Singh will be decided in this phase.<br />'' <br />''Former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is contesting from Imamganj constituency as NDA candidate.<br />'' <br />''The RJD has pitted former Speaker of Bihar Assembly Uday Narayan Chaudhary against Mr Manjhi.<br />'' <br />''In the first phase, the focus of the campaigning was unemployment and development.<br />'' <br />''Senior leaders and Star Campaigners held back to back multiple election rallies.<br />'' <br />''AIR Correspondent reports, senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed three public meetings in this phase.<br />'' <br />''Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also held election rallies in support of Grand Alliance candidates.<br />'' <br />''Over the issue of employment, farm reform legislation, corruption and misrule allegations and counter allegations were exchanged.<br />'' <br />''JD(U) President and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, CM candidate of Grand Alliance Tejaswi Prasad Yadav held multiple election rallies back to back.<br />'' <br />''LJP Chief Chirag Paswan and RLSP Chief Upendra Kuswaha tried to corner Nitish Kumar over the issues of education, health and migrant people.<br />'' <br />''Other leaders of Opposition also remained stuck on these poll planks.<br />'' <br />''During the poll campaigns several incidents of contravention of COVID-19 protocols occurred.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">After that the Election Commission of India strictly ordered to lodge FIRs whoever violates the COVID-19 protocols.</span>