New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- The elections to the 243-seat Bihar assembly will be held in two phases, polling for which will be held on November 6 and 11 while the counting of votes will be done on November 14, chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar announced on Monday. The entire election process will be concluded by November 16. "Bihar elections will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11. Counting of votes will be done on November 14," Kumar said at a press conference. While 121 assembly constituencies will go to the polls in the first phase, voting will be held in 122 assembly constituencies in the second phase. The term of the current Assembly ends on November 22. At the centre of the storm is Bihar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls which has resulted in deletions of over 6.8 million names from the electoral roll-the first such exercise in over two decades. Opposition parties have alleged that the SIR has resulted in the deletion of lakhs of genuine voters, disproportionately impacting women, minorities, and migrant workers. Congress and RJD leaders have accused the EC of conducting a "purge" under the pretext of roll purification. The commission has dismissed the allegations as "baseless and defamatory," insisting that the revision was essential to remove duplicate, deceased, and migrated entries. With SIR being the key poll issue, rising unemployment, demand for special status, and caste-based reservations are also set to dominate the narrative in the assembly elections, as the ruling NDA and the Opposition INDIA bloc prepare to fight the high-stakes polls next month. Besides Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is seen as past his political prime but remains a formidable presence, the NDA also includes allies such as Jitan Ram Manjhi, Chirag Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha, along with the BJP as the principal constituent. The Mahagathbandhan is helmed by the RJD-Congress combine, which joined hands with the CPI(ML) Liberation and other alliance partners. The grand alliance would seek to draw inspiration from its better-than-expected performance in 2020. In the upcoming elections, the NDA will be up against the INDIA bloc of the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD, the Congress, the Deepankar Bhattacharya led CPI (ML), CPI, 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 NDA is banking on the Charisma of PM Narendra Modi and the social schemes that the centre and the state have, including the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, youth-focused initiatives worth more than Rs 62,000 crore. The BJP has also focussed on the alleged corruption and crime of the Lalu Prasad era to further strengthen its claims among the voters. The INDIA bloc led has centered its campaign around three main pillars, the first the high-octane Vote Chori campaign which alleged that the BJP has managed to get the EC to manipulate the Electoral rolls in the state giving it an unfair advantage, the second is the caste-survey which was conducted when the JDU-RJD were in power and promises to up the reservation quotas, while the last surround allegations of widespread unemployment and lack of government jobs. The EC last week published the final electoral roll for the Bihar elections following the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The total number of electors in the final list stands at 74.2 million. The draft roll published on August 1 after the first phase of the SIR was completed comprised 72.4 million people, dropping 6.56 million names from the rolls published on January 1 this year. In the two-month-long verification of documents and submission of objections process, another 366,000 names were excised while 2.15 million names were added, the ECI statement said. The top court has scheduled a final hearing for Tuesday (October 7) and has indicated that it may annul the entire roll if it finds any illegality in the revision process. The election schedule announcement came even as the poll body faces one of the most intense credibility tests in its history. In the months since CEC Kumar took charge, the commission has been accused by opposition parties of large-scale voter deletions, curbing data access, withholding CCTV footage, and evading questions on the integrity of electronic voting machines (EVMs). Each of these allegations has drawn a combative defence from the EC, which insists that its processes remain transparent, lawful, and politically neutral. This will be the first major electoral exercise since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the first state poll under CEC Kumar's leadership. "The Commission firmly believes that pure and updated electoral roll is the foundation of free, fair and credible elections. Hence, intensive and sustained focus is placed upon improving its quality, health and fidelity," the EC said on Monday....