Patna: An estimated 64.66 percent of 3.75 crore voters exercised their franchise in the first phase of Bihar assembly election on Thursday as barring a few stray incidents including attack on deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha`s convoy, the voting process passed off peacefully.
In the first phase, as many 121 constituencies spread over 18 districts of the state went to the polls. Women in large numbers turned out at the polling booth to cast their votes.
Bihar chief electoral officer Vinod Singh Gunjiyal said that votes were cast at 45,341 polling stations. An overwhelming majority of polling booths (36,733) were located in rural areas.
Bihar assembly election is being held after the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which now has 7.24 crore voters across the state, about 60 lakh less than the size before the exercise was undertaken.
Bihar deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha contesting election from Lakhisarai claimed that "goons" of the RJD hurled slippers, stones and cow-dung at his car at Khoriari village with slippers. He demanded immediate deployment of a special force to maintain law and order. Locals said they protested over broken roads and neglected infrastructure in the area, suggesting the attack was partly driven by civic grievances
On the other hand, the vehicle of CPI (ML) candidate from Manjhi constituency, Satyendra Yadav, was also pelted by some unidentified persons at Jaitpur village in Saran district, informed additional director general of police Kundan Krishnan. Nobody was injured in the incident, he added.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar cast his vote in Bakhtiyarpur. RJD president Lalu Prasad cast his vote at the Veterinary College ground polling booth, asserting, “‘Badlaav hoga’ (There will be a change).” Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, RJD leader and Mahagathbandhan chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav and MP Misa Bharti also exercised their franchise at thebooth in the early hours.
Rabri Devi also extended best wishes to both her sons — Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav. Notably, Tej Pratap is contesting on his own. “I am their mother. Good luck to both of them," she said.
Meanwhile, for the first time in 20 years, voters in the Naxal-affected Bhimbandh area of Munger district exercised their franchise in the first phase of the election. The polling was suspended in the region in 2005 after the killing of SP C Surendra Babu and seven police personnel.
On the other hand, RJD alleged that electricity was being intermittently cut off at Mahagathbandhan strong booths “with the intention of slowing down the voting process,” claiming that voting was being deliberately delayed. The CEO, however, termed the allegations of power cuts at polling booths as “completely baseless and misleading”. “There is no basis for such misleading propaganda,” the CEO said in a post on X.
Some of the prominent candidates include Tejashwi Yadav (RJD-Raghopur), deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary (BJP-Tarapur), folk singer Maithili Thakur (BJP-Aliganj), Bhojpuri actor Khesari Lal Yadav (RJD-Chhapra), and Ritesh Pandey (Jan Suraaj Party-Kargahar), Anant Singh, and Kedar Prasad Gupta (Kurhani). The electoral fate of several ministers including Nitin Nabin (Bankipur), Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga), Jibesh Kumar (Jale), Shrawan Kumar (Nalanda) and Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (Sarairanjan) will be decided.
