21.11% voting registered in Bihar till 11 am.

21.11% voting registered in Bihar till 11 am.

Patna May 20: The polling for the five seats of the Lok Sabha election is picking up in Bihar as the election commission has registered 21.11% polling till 11 am on Monday. The polling on these five seats till 9 am was 8.86%.

The voting is currently underway in Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saran and Hajipur. People are seeing the long queues in the polling stations located in these constituencies.

A maximum of 22.70% registered in Sitamarhi while Muzaffarpur registered 22.45% till 11 am. The election commission has registered 22.37% in Madhubani, 20.75% in Saran and 17.36% in Hajipur Lok Sabha constituencies.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) HR Srinivasa said that the voting for the fifth phase started at 7 am on Monday and no incident of violence was reported in any of the five constituencies.

“After the two days of intense heat wave, the atmosphere in Bihar has improved. I want to appeal to the voters to step out from their houses and reach polling centers to use their voting rights in the festival of democracy,” Srinivasa said.

“EVMs and VVPATs are working well at every polling station. We have done the first level of checking of all EVMs efficiently and hence only a few complaints have been registered about the malfunctioning in this Lok Sabha election so far. We also have adequate numbers of EVMs in the backup zone,” Srinivasa said.

In Sitamarhi, a close contest is expected between the NDA and the Grand Alliance for this seat. The district administration has made full preparations for the voting. Police forces have been deployed along with magistrates at every booth.

Sitamarhi Lok Sabha constituency comprises 6 assembly seats. BJP has MLAs in Sitamarhi, Bathnaha and Parihar, JDU in Sursand and Runnisaidpur and RJD won only the Bajpatti assembly seat in the  2020 election.

NDA has made Bihar Legislative Council Chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur its candidate. He is contesting on the ticket of JD-U and RJD has given the ticket to Arjun Rai. Devesh Chandra Thakur has been a member of the Bihar Legislative Council for 22 years. Currently, Sunil Kumar Pintu is the JDU MP from here but the party cut his ticket and gave it to Devesh Chandra Thakur in 2024.

In Muzaffarpur, a total of 1574 polling stations have been set up by the election commission. Muzaffarpur DM Subrat Kumar Sen said that 626 of these polling stations have been categorized as sensitive. 210 sector officers have been appointed in the Muzaffarpur Lok Sabha constituency for peaceful voting. 8 thousand 971 polling personnel have been deployed for voting.

Strict security arrangements have been made at all booths for fair and peaceful voting. Paramilitary forces have been deployed at sensitive polling stations. Apart from this, Bihar Armed Police, Bihar Police and Home Guard personnel have also been deployed at the booths. Patrolling has also been arranged at seven levels. DM Subrat Kumar Sen and SSP Rakesh Kumar have appealed to the voters to vote fearlessly.

A total of 6 assembly constituencies Gaighat, Aurai, Bochahan, Sakra, Kudhni and Muzaffarpur come under the Muzaffarpur Lok Sabha constituency. The total number of voters on this Lok Sabha seat is 18 lakh 58 thousand 538 including 9 lakh 80 thousand 599 are male 8 lakh 77 thousand 887 female voters and 52 transgenders.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the main contest is expected between BJP candidate Raj Bhushan NIshad and Congress candidate Ajay Nishad on this seat. They are contesting against each other for the second time. Raj Bhushan Nishad, who contested on VIP ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, is contesting on BJP ticket this time. He lost to Ajay Nishad in 2019.

In Madhubani, a total of 26 candidates are in the fray on this seat and 19 lakh 34 thousand 235 voters will decide their fate. Among them, 10 lakhs, 13 thousand 971 are male and 9 lakhs,20 thousand 173 female voters. The number of third-gender voters is 91.

Like most seats in Bihar, there is a direct contest between NDA and the Grand Alliance on the Madhubani Lok Sabha seat as well. NDA has fielded BJP’s sitting MP Ashok Yadav again while Ali Ashraf Fatmi of RJD is challenging him as a Grand Alliance candidate this time. Just before the elections, Fatmi left JDU and joined RJD.

In Saran, a total of 17 lakh 95 thousand 1 voters will be able to exercise their franchise to choose their favorite candidate for the Saran Lok Sabha seat in this election. Among them, the number of male voters is 9 lakh 40 thousand 771 while the number of female voters is 8 lakh 54 thousand 230.

Although a total of 14 candidates are trying their luck in the Saran Lok Sabha seat, the main contest is between BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy and RJD’s Rohini Acharya. Rudy, who won the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is preparing for the third consecutive victory, while Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini has entered the electoral fray for the first time.

In Hajipur, the voters are showing a lot of enthusiasm to use their voting rights. Long queues of people have been seen at the booths since morning. At the same time, strict security arrangements have been made at all the booths for peaceful and fair voting.

A total of 1,917 polling stations have been set up for the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat. Tight security arrangements have been made at all the booths for peaceful voting. The election commission has deployed 58 companies of special security forces. The administration has issued instructions to take the strictest steps to prevent any disturbance during voting.

A total of 6 assembly seats Hajipur, Mahanar, Raghopur, Rajapakar, Lalganj and Mahua come under the Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency. Talking about the number of voters, this time the total number of voters in the Hajipur seat is 19 lakhs 49 thousand 119, in which the number of male voters is 10 lakhs 22 thousand 270 while the number of female voters is 9 lakhs 26 thousand 849.

Hajipur seat can also be called the traditional seat of Ram Vilas Paswan’s family. This is because Ram Vilas Paswan won from this seat in 1977, 1980, 1989, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014, while in 2019 his younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras hoisted the victory flag by defeating the challenge of the Grand Alliance. However, apart from the Congress wave in 1984, Ram Vilas could not maintain his dominance in 1991 and 2009. This time, the Late Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan is contesting from the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat. RJD has given the ticket to Shiv Chandra Ram.

EOM.