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57% Voting Recorded In First Phase Of Bihar Polls

Bihar successfully completed the first phase of election for 49 assembly seats in 10 districts with 57 percent voter turn out.

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Billed as the mother of all elections, the Bihar assembly polls began with a bang on Monday with the voters’ turnout surpassing the previous records by 6.15%.

About 13.5 million voters are eligible to decide the political fate of 583 candidates in the fray.

Poverty-stricken Jamui, Banka and Bhagalpur could be the 10 regions, which happen to be is reputed for remarkable occurrences of movement away from the place in quest of vigor.

Following the dramatic resignation of the cabinet minister, the Election Commission has ordered the District Magistrate to probe into the alleged sting tape.

The Bihar elections are also important for Modi, because if the BJP wins the state it would have more members in the upper house of India’s Parliament, which would ease the passage of key economic bills that the government is eager to push. This time, the JD(U) put up 24 candidates, the RJD 17 and the Congress 8 candidates. Voting was also boycotted at three polling stations in Sultanganj (Bhagalpur) constituency and one each in Banka and Lakhisarai constituencies.

Women outnumbered male voters at the majority of booths in the first phase of the all-important Assembly elections in Bihar on Monday.

Votes will be counted on November. 8.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in the Bhabua area of Bihar for the second phase of election.

Voting in the nine Naxal-hit seats – Tarapur, Jamalpur, Suryagraha, Rajauli (SC), Govindpur, Sikandara (SC), Jamui, Jhajha and Chakai – ended early at 3pm.

Though a few complaints were received, including an attack on LJP candidate Vijay Singh at Jamui, but prima facie the complaints were not found true, Nayak said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led national Democratic Alliance is determined to oust the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and its allies, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress who had formed a Grand Alliance. What is common to both surveys is the overwhelming support to Nitish Kumar as the most popular man to lead the state.

Drones will be used for the first time for surveillance and about 1.20 lakh security officials, including 87,600 central paramilitary personnel, would be deployed at 13,212 polling booths, officials said.

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So far as first phase of the polling of 49 seats is concerned, it is also a test for Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan who joined hands with the BJP in 2014 during the Lok Sabha polls.

Voters wait in queue to cast their votes at a polling station in Samastipur on Monday during the first phase of Bihar assembly elections