Polling was underway amid tight security arrangements for 94 constituencies in 17 districts of Bihar from 7 a.m. on Tuesday for the second phase of Assembly elections.
Foolproof security arrangements have been made for voting as well as to ensure that social distancing norms are in place in the times of the Covid pandemic.
This phase will largely decide the fate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) as the highest number of seats compared to the first and third phase go to polls. The first phase of voting for 71 seats was on October 28.
The Election Commission (EC) has deployed a large number of security forces comprising teams of the Bihar police and the paramilitary forces in each and every booth. The local administration has also installed makeshift check posts at the district borders.
For NDA, the BJP is contesting in 46 constituencies, including in its stronghold East and West Champaran districts where the party had managed to win 13 out of 21 seats against the formidable force of -- the RJD, JDU and the Congress in 2015.
Besides the BJP, its alliance partner, the VIP is contesting on five seats mainly in the Mithilanchal area where Mallah and Nishadh voters are in significant numbers. JD-U is contesting on 43 seats.
The second phase is equally important for the RJD which is contesting on 56 seats, the Congress on 24 seats, CPI-ML (Liberation) on six seats, and four seats each for the CPI and CPI-M.
This phase will also decide the fate of some of the heavyweights, including the RJD Chief Minister face Tejashwi Yadav from Raghopur in Vaishali district, former Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav from Hasanpur in Samastipur district, Love Sinha, son of actor turned politician Shatrughan Sinha from Bakipur in Patna district, BJP leader Nand Kishor Yadav from Patna Sahib, etc.
Overall, 1,463 candidates are in the fray of second phase election, including 1,316 males, 146 females, and one transgender.
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Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar cast their votes and both urged the people to come out in large numbers and produce numbers larger than the last elections.
In the first two hours of polling, the maximum voting was seen in West Champaran with 9.68 percent, followed by 9.61 percent in Nalanda and 9.51 percent in Patna district. The lowest voting turnout was in the flood-hit Khagaria and Darbhanga districts with 5.12 and 5.79 percent respectively.
Other districts such as Sheohar has 9.05 percent, Sitamadhi 8.27, Madhubani 6.99, East Champaran 6.79, Muzaffarpur 9.08, Gopalganj 9.84, Siwan 6.76, Sharan 7.04, Vaishali 7.85, Samastipur 9.38, Begusarai 7.66 and Bhagalpur 7.61 percent.
Some of the top leaders, including Nikhil Anand, the chief spokesperson of the BJP, and candidate from Maner constituency has cast his vote at the Jeevrakhan Tola high school in Maner. He was looking confident of winning this seat.
"Being a native of Maner, it is my home turf and I am quite confident of winning the election. We have the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our NDA government has done so many works in public welfare. Our party will do a great show in this election and we will form the government in Bihar again," Anand told IANS.
Grand Alliance CM face Tejashwi Yadav along with his mother Rabri Devi also cast their votes at the Veterinary Ground polling booth in Patna at 9 a.m.
"I want people of Bihar to cast their votes at their respective polling booths and also follow the Covid norms. People of Bihar need change and I appeal to people of Bihar to vote in favor of Mahagathbandhan in large numbers," Tejashwi said.
His mother Rabri Devi said, "A wave of change was underway in Bihar and I appeal to the voters of Bihar to come out of their houses and please vote in favor of Mahagathbandhan candidates."
Sanjay Jaiswal, the BJP Bihar unit president also cast his votes along with his wife in booth number 61 in Bettiah.
"We are confident about people of Bihar voting in favor of the NDA candidates. I appeal to them to please follow the covid norms during polling," Jaiswal said.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai cast his vote at the Karnpura primary school in Hajipur in the morning.
(With Agency Inputs)