Bihar’s first phase poll begins
Patna : Voters queued up at the polling booths much early on Thursday as Bihar’s first phase elections to 47 of the 243 Assembly constituencies started at 7 am amidst tight security arrangements, officials said.
More than 15 percent voters cast their ballots in first three hours as reports compiled here from different constituencies showed.
Over one crore (10 million) electorate, of them nearly half are women, from eight districts in state’s politically volatile Kosi-Seemanchal region are expected to cast vote until 5 pm at 10,454 polling centres in this phase.
Director General of Police Neelmani said the borders with Madhubani, Supaul, Kishanganj and Araria districts have come under tight security watch to prevent entry and exit of any potential trouble-maker.
He said helicopters and sniffer dogs have been deployed to ensure trouble free voting.
Prominent among the 631 candidates in this round are Janata Dal (United) ministers Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Narendra Narain Yadav, Renu Kumari, Hari Prasad Sah, Congress aspirants Ranjeet Ranjan (wife of former Lok Sabha member Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav), state unit chief Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Lovely Anand (wife of former MP Anand Mohan).
Whilst JD-U has 26 candidates, its ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 21, former ruling Rastriya Janata Dal has 31, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has 26 and Congress and BSP (needs full form) in all 47seats.
Kosi region accounts for 13 seats, adjoining Seemanchal, the districts bordering Nepal, have 24 seats. The rest are in Madhubani.
Bihar is going to a staggered six-phased polls amid a raging debate over development and a tug of war between the parties to harvest the minority and caste votes.
A total 5.5 core electorate in India?s third most populous state would choose their candidates in the six-phased elections spread over Oct and Nov.
The dates on which six-phase polls will be conducted are Oct 21 (47 seats), Oct 24 (45 seats), Oct 28 (48 seats), Nov 1 (42 seats), Nov 9 (35 seats) and Nov 20 (26 seats).
There are 38 SC reserved and two ST reserved seats.
The counting of vote is on Nov 24 while the term of the Bihar Assembly is to end on Nov 27.
The big fight of this election is between the ruling alliance of Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) while Congress is the third force which also campaigned hard fielding their top crowd-pulling leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
