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New Delhi, Nov 6 (IANS) Voting for the first phase of Bihar assembly elections ended on Thursday amid reports of sporadic clashes, even as the Election Commission refuted allegations of power cuts and fake voting.
According to Election Commission of India data, 60.13 percent voting was recorded till 5 pm on Thursday in 121 seats during the first phase of Bihar Assembly elections.
Among the 18 districts where voting took place, Begusarai district topped with 67.32 percent voting till 5 pm, followed by Samastipur district with 66.65 percent and Madhepura district with 65.74 percent.
According to ECI data, Bachhwara seat (Assembly constituency 142) in Begusarai district witnessed the highest voting percentage of 69.67 per cent till 5 pm.
Although polling will close at 5 pm, voters who had queued up before the scheduled time will be allowed to vote.
Since Thursday morning, a large number of women voters were seen waiting to exercise their franchise.
In recent times, Bihar has achieved the distinction of recording high female voter turnout.
Perhaps the worst of the incidents of violence and attacks took place in Lakhisarai, where the convoy of Deputy Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Vijay Kumar Sinha was reportedly surrounded and stones and slippers were pelted at him.
This led to heated exchanges between BJP and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supporters and a tense situation, although security personnel took steps to restore order.
Deputy Chief Minister Sinha accused RJD supporters of plotting the attack and intimidating its agents at the grassroots level, calling the episode evidence of a “booth-capture mentality”.
Meanwhile, RJD and other opposition parties separately alleged “targeted disruption” at some booths in the state.
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod Singh Gunjiyal rejected several allegations raised by the opposition, including RJD’s allegations of “deliberate power cuts at strong booths of the grand alliance with the intention of slowing down voting”.
In a strong rebuttal, the election body termed it “completely baseless and misleading”.
In a social media post on Twitter, the CEO said that “voting is going on smoothly at all polling stations in Bihar”.
It added that “The Election Commission of India is following all standard protocols to ensure that the voting process is fair, transparent and seamless.”
In another instance, RJD posted statements of three voters, alleging that at “booth no. 147 in Sahibganj-98 assembly constituency of Muzaffarpur district”, these voters were told that their votes had already been cast.
Later the same voters were seen showing their inked fingers on a post by the Bihar CEO and saying that they had indeed exercised their democratic rights.
Posting an update, the polling body stressed that voters were exercising their franchise without any hindrance and administration teams were closely monitoring polling stations.
In the first phase of voting, voting took place in 121 assembly constituencies across 18 districts, where 1,314 candidates are in the fray.
The contest is primarily between the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Janata Dal-United leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the opposition grand alliance led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav.
This time the presence of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party can play a disruptive role and affect the results on many seats.
Candidates in this phase include Grand Alliance’s chief ministerial candidate Tejaswai, BJP candidates Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha – both outgoing deputy chief ministers, state JD-U president Umesh Kushwaha and RJD’s Bhola Yadav, a close aide of party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Also in the fray are Bhojpuri actor Khesari Lal Yadav (RJD) and popular folk singer Maithili Thakur (BJP).
The election will also be closely watched in Mokama where JD-U candidate Anant Singh was recently detained on charges of murder of Dularchand Yadav while he was campaigning for JSP candidate Priyadarshi Piyush.
–IANS
JB/KHz