Patna: Voting is underway in Bihar today for bypolls to 10 Assembly seats. As per reports, there has been low turnout so far with Election Commission officials recording only 11.91% polling till 10:00 am.
Apart from helping politicians gauge whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s magic is still working in the state, the by-polls will also ascertain which way the wind is blowing in the state before next year’s Assembly polls.
These will also test whether the experiment of reunion of ‘mandal forces’ represented by Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) in company of the Congress has been a success in stopping the BJP juggernaut.
Altogether 94 candidates including 5 women are in the fray, an Election Commission statement said. Hajipur has maximum 15 contestants while Banka and Rajnagar (SC) have a minimum of six candidates each. A total of 26, 42,407 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 2422 booths.
Additional Director General of Police (headquarters) Gupteshwar Pandey said 1962 police officers along with 6000 personnel drawn from the CRPF, BMP and state police have been deployed to provide security.
The campaigning witnessed acrimony between the alliance of the JD(U), RJD and Congress and the NDA combine. Lalu and Nitish missed no chance to attack Modi for ‘hoodwinking’ voters in the General Elections.
Prasad in particular spit venom against friend-turned foe LJP chief Paswan. He dubbed Paswan a ‘weather scientist’ and ‘weathercock’. The LJP chief retorted that Prasad was an ‘expert on jails’.
Bureau Report
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