Bihar elections: 60 per cent turnout till 5 pm, Patna sees lowest voting figures

Polling progressed at a moderate pace across 121 Assembly constituencies of Bihar on Thursday with 6018 per cent of 375 crore voters casting their votes till 3 pm to decide the fate of over 1000 candidates in the first phase of elections which also witnessed sporadic incidents of violenceStakes are high for both the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc with several key leaders including RJDs Tejashwi Yadav Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha and several ministers in the frayAmong the 18 districts Begusarai recorded the highest turnout of 6732 per cent followed by Samastipur 6665 and Madhepura 6574 Turn out in Muzaffarur was 5840 per cent and Gopalganj at 5817 per cent Lakhisarai district recorded a turnout of 5739 per cent while Patna district continued to record a slowmoving voter turnout among all districts at 4869 per centBihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha PICPTIThe first phase will decide the fate of several senior leaders including RJDrsquos Tejashwi Prasad Yadav BJP leaders Samrat Choudhary and Mangal Pandey and JDUrsquos Shravan Kumar and Vijay Kumar Choudhary Tej Pratap Yadav is also in the fray in the first phase The low turnout in Patna was largely attributed to urban constituencies such as Bankipur 3480 per cent Digha 3189 per cent and Kumhrar 3773 per centDy CM Sinha alleges convoy attacked EC orders actionBihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha caused a flutter on Thursday alleging that his convoy had been attacked by workers of the main opposition party RJD who were trying to ldquointimidaterdquo voters in the areaThe senior BJP leader who is seeking reelection for a fourth consecutive term expressed dissatisfaction with the response of the local administration saying he would take up the matter with the Election Commission EC Reacting to the alleged incident Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar directed the state DGP to take ldquoimmediate actionrdquoLakhisarai SP Ajay Kumar said polling was continuing in the area where Sinha alleged that his convoy was attacked by RJD supporters ldquoI have received reports of some protests over broken roads but I will be able to confirm what actually happened only after visiting the siterdquo the SP saidTalking to reporters the deputy chief minister said ldquoSince morning RJD have been intimidating voters belonging to extremely backward classes The local SP is a coward He says there is peace all around when the fact is that people are not being allowed to voterdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever