Bihar sees record 64.46% voter turnout in first phase of Assembly polls
In the “highest ever” voter turnout in Bihar, nearly 65 per cent of 3.75 crore electorates exercised their franchise on Thursday across 121 constituencies in the first phase of the assembly elections, which marks the beginning of a closely watched high-stakes contest that is seen as a litmus test of the ruling NDA’s popularity.
The voter turnout of 64.66 per cent was recorded provisionally at the close of polling in 121 seats in the first phase of Assembly elections in Bihar on Thursday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod Singh Gunjiyal said.
In a statement, the Election Commission said the first phase of the assembly elections concluded peacefully “in a festive mood with the highest-ever voter turnout of 64.66 per cent in the history of Bihar”.
A total of 3.75 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in this phase, to decide the electoral fate of 1,314 candidates, Gunjiyal said.
Voting took place across 45,341 polling stations, of which 36,733 were in rural areas, he added.
Gunjiyal said that barring a few incidents of “minor scuffles” in Lakhisarai and Saran, polling passed off peacefully. “Voting began at 7 am and concluded at 6 pm amid tight security. Around 64.66 per cent voter turnout was recorded,” he said. “A total of 143 complaints were received and were immediately resolved,” he added.
The NDA, which has been in power in the state for 20 years, except for a few brief interruptions, is banking on its image of “sushasan” (good governance) in contrast to the alleged “jungle raj” of the RJD-Congress combine, while the opposition bloc relies on anti-incumbency and the unprecedented “jobs-for-every-home” promise of its CM candidate, Tejashwi Yadav, to outperform the ruling alliance.