Photo for representational purpose only.

PATNA (Bihar)

At least 6 labourers were killed and more than a dozen were injured after a boiler exploded in a noodle-making factory in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, officials said on Sunday.

They said rescue operations were underway even as further details on the accident are awaited. The death toll is expected to rise.

Identities of people who died in the accident are yet to be ascertained. It is not known how many people were working at the factory at the time of the accident.

The explosion was so strong that it was heard 5-km away from the site of the blast. At least 5 fire brigades were rushed to extinguish the flames. Adjacent establishments were also damaged in the explosion. Those living in the vicinity said they heard a loud thud when the explosion jolted the factory.

The exact cause of the incident could not be known immediately. Meanwhile, the factory gates have been closed.

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The NDA has managed to cross the required majority mark of 122 seats even though Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD emerged as the single-largest party in the 243 member Bihar assembly.

From Tejashwi Yadav’s big arrival in Bihar politics, to Nitish Kumar’s position in NDA suffering a blow and Chirag Paswan not performing for LJP as expected , here are some keytakeaways from the Bihar election result.

Thin margin keeps NDA in power

NDA has won 125 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly where 122 is the majority mark. Nitish Kumar-led NDA with JDU, BJP and the smaller parties of HAM and VIP has managed to cross the halfway mark to give Nitish Kumar his fourth term in the office.

BJP has won 74 seats while JDU has managed to bag 43 seats. Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM and VP gained four seats each. Both HAM and VP joind NDA months before the Bihar election after quitting Mahagathbandhan(MGB).

RJD emerged as the single-largest party

This is the first Bihar election that RJD contested without the presence of party supermo Lalu Prasad as he is in jail after convicted in the fodder scam case. Thrity one year old Tejashwi Yadav, who was earlier a part of the Mahagathbandhan with Nitish Kumar, has announced his big arrival with RJD’s startling yet amazing performance in the Bihar assembly election 2020.

RJD has emerged as the single largest party in Bihar and won 75 seats. JDU and BJP kept reminding voters of the atrocities during RJD’s rule under Lalu Prasad Yadav 15 years ago, yet the party has managed to win big. RJD gained the highest vote share among all parties with 23.11%.

This election was a “coming of age” moment for Tejashwi Yadav after RJD’s unprecedented drubbing in the 2019 Lok Sabha election when RJD failed to open its account.

BJP gains upper hand over JDU

Bharathiya Janata Party, has always played second fiddle to Nitish Kumar’s JDU in Bihar.

However in the 2020 Bihar assembly election, BJP has managed to trump not just the MGB, but also its own alliance partner JDU.

With 74 seats, BJP did a better job comparing to 2015 tally of 53 seats, giving the party a upper hand over JDU which has been reduced to 43 seats in 2020, from its 71 seats in 2015.

Although Nitish Kumar is likely to continue as the chief minister of Bihar, BJP will be more assertive and have a greater share in the next Bihar government.

Fall of LJP

During the campaign for Bihar assembly election, Chirag Paswan started attacking Nitish Kumar over his 15 year rule in Bihar, accusing the government of mismanagement. Chirag broke ties with the NDA and announced LJP as an independent party. But LJP decided to support BJP sans JDU.

The Lok Janshakthi Party (LJP) has won just one seat and caused a significant damage to JDU and Nitish Kumar. According to reports, LJP has been instrumental in spoiling JDU’s chances in at least 30 seats.

Congress let down Mahagathbandhan

Congress has barely managed to win 19 seats in the this election, a tally lower than its own count in 2015, when Congress had won 27 seats.

Congress has performed poorly particularly in the seats where it was in direct contest with BJP and became the weakest link for the MGB.

Tejashwi Yadav’s decision to give 70 seats to Congress was a bad move that cost his party MGB a lot.

Left party win big

The Left parties contested in 29 seats in the Bihar assembly elections tying up with MGB and won 16 seats, performing better than some anticipated.

The biggest gainer was the CPI-ML, which clinched 12 seats, followed by the CPI and CPI-M, which won two each. Barring the CPI-ML, which had three seats in the outgoing assembly, none of the Left parties had a presence in Bihar assembly before this.

Surprise performance from Owaisi

Asaduddin Owaisi’s  All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has managed to win five seats, which was a surprising turn of events. They were slammed as ‘vote cutter’and spoiler in Bihar Assembly elections, but AIMIM won five Muslim-dominated seats, giving a befitting reply to their critics.

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The total coronavirus cases mounted to 41,13,811, while the death toll climbed to 70,626 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 1,065 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further declined to 1.72 per cent. There are 8,62,320 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 20.96 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and it went past 40 lakh on September 5.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 4,88,31,145 samples have been tested up to September 5 with 10,92,654 samples being tested on Saturday.

Of the 1,065 fresh deaths, 312 are from Maharashtra, 128 from Karnataka, 81 from Uttar Pradesh, 71 from Andhra Pradesh, 69 from Punjab, 61 from Tamil Nadu, 58 from West Bengal, 34 from Bihar, 30 from Madhya Pradesh, 25 from Delhi, 22 from Haryana, 19 from Chhattisgarh, 18 each from Puducherry and Uttarakhand, 15 each from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.

Fourteen fatalities have been reported from Rajasthan, 11 from Kerala, nine each from Goa and Telangana, eight from Tripura, seven each from Assam and Odisha, four from Himachal Pradesh while Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Manipur and Meghalaya have registered one fatality each.

Of the total 70,626 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 26,276 followed by 7,748 in Tamil Nadu, 6,298 in Karnataka, 4,538 in Delhi, 4,347 in Andhra Pradesh, 3,843 in Uttar Pradesh, 3,510 in West Bengal, 3,091 in Gujarat and 1,808 in Punjab.

So far, 1,543 people have died of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh, 1,122 in Rajasthan, 886 in Telangana, 781 in Haryana, 770 in Jammu and Kashmir, 735 in Bihar, 538 in Odisha, 462 in Jharkhand, 356 in Chhattisgarh, 352 in Assam, 337 in Kerala and 330 in Uttarakhand.

Puducherry has registered 298 fatalities, Goa 229, Tripura 144, Chandigarh 69, Himachal Pradesh 54, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 50, Manipur 36, Ladakh 35, Meghalaya 15, Nagaland 10, Arunachal Pradesh eight, Sikkim five and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that State-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

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Voters whose body temperature is found to be more than the safe threshold set by the Health Ministry will be checked twice, and if the result remains the same, then they will be asked to visit again in the last hour of polling. “At the last hour of poll, such electors shall be facilitated voting, strictly following COVID-19 related preventive measures,” the Election Commission said in its latest guidelines.

It said public meetings and road shows can be organised but must follow COVID-19 containment conditions set by the centre.

Candidates can file nominations and deposit security money online, the Election Commission said in the 12-page document titled “Broad Guidelines for Conduct of General Elections/By-Elections During COVID-19”.

Other standard safety measures like wearing masks, using sanitizers, installing thermal scanners and wearing personal protection equipment (PPE) kits will continue during the election process.
Elections are due in later this year in Bihar, which has reported 1.15 lakh coronavirus cases and over 570 deaths till now. The Election Commission, however, has not made any announcement about the schedule.
“Nodal health officer shall be designated for the state, the district and the assembly constituency to oversee COVID-19 related arrangements and, preventive measures during entire electoral process,” the Election Commission said. “Training for election officials may be organised through online mode,” it said.
A reserve pool of polling, counting and other staff will be maintained by the Returning Officer to replace election staff who show symptoms of coronavirus infection.

Only two people and two vehicles can accompany a candidate if coming to the election office to file papers.
“Returning Officer’s chamber should have sufficient space to perform the functions of nomination, scrutiny and symbol allocation following social distancing norms. Returning Officer should allot staggered time in advance to prospective candidates,” the Election Commission said.

The carrying cases of control units and voter-verifiable paper trail will be sanitised before they are placed on counting tables.

In Bihar, except for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and the BJP, almost all major political parties have demanded that elections be postponed due to the coronavirus threat.

“What sort of elections would be held under these circumstances? Every polling station will turn out to be a coronavirus infection centre after elections, and it is difficult to predict the extent to which the disease might spread,” former union minister Yashwant Sinha said on August 20.

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On his official Twitter handle, Modi said the 15-day lockdown will remain in force at all municipal, district, sub divisional and block headquarters level and that guidelines were being prepared.

“The government has taken a decision to this effect… Corona has neither any vaccine nor any medicine,” Modi said in a virtual rally, details of which were shared on his Twitter handle.

The move comes close on the heels of recent spike in positive cases which had necessitated lockdowns, imposed by the local administrations, in several districts.

According to reports, during the lockdown, emergency services, trains and flights will continue. Also local fruit and vegetable shops are likely to open once each in morning and evening. However, public transport services, shopping malls, and religious places like temples, across the state, will remain closed.

The government, reportedly, took this decision during a high-level meeting, which was called today to discuss further measures to curb the spread of the infection in the state.

On July 14, the government had extended lockdown in Nawada, Buxar and Supaul and announced fresh lockdown in Sitamarhi and Lakhisarai. With this, lockdown is now imposed in 20 districts across the state.

Several states, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Nagaland, have already announced lockdown till July 31. Uttar Pradesh government has announced lockdowns on all Saturdays and Sundays.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases in India continue to rise unabatedly with the tally crossing 9-lakh mark on Tuesday. The country recorded last 1 lakh cases in just three days. Meanwhile, the death toll is nearing 24,000 mark.

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