LS polls: Bihar beats 1st phase turnout, but falls short of 2019 mark in 5 seats

The second phase polling in Bihar as part of ongoing seven-phase parliamentary elections in the country, in which five of the 40 seats in the state went to vote on Friday, passed off peacefully, recording an overall provisional voter turnout of 58.58%, nearly 10% better than the first phase.

The seats whose fate was sealed on Friday were Kishanganj, Katihar and Purnia in the Seemanchal region that has significant Muslim population, besides Bhagalpur and Banka.

“The overall turnout in these five seats dropped by 4.34% from 62.92% in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019,” said Bihar’s chief electoral officer HR Srinivasa told reporters.

“Polling is still on as we talk (at 6:30pm), and there are queues of voters at polling booths in Purnia, Kishanganj and Katihar. We expect the final voter turnout to cross 60% once it is finalised around midnight,” said Srinivasa.

Kishanganj recorded the highest provisional voting percentage of 64% as against 66.35% in 2019, followed by Katihar (64.60% in comparison to 67.62% the last time); Purnia (59.94% as compared to 65.37% in 2019), Banka (54% as compared to 58.60% in 2019) and Bhagalpur (51% as against 57.17% in the last elections), as per the press release issued by the CEO office.

Compared to 2019, the voter turnout had showed a 4.21% drop even in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in Bihar — Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada and Jamui voted in the first phase on April 19 — with an overall voting percentage of 49.26.

On Friday, voters boycotted polls at 11 booths in three parliamentary constituencies of Kishanganj, Bhagalpur and Banka over lack of development in their area.

“Voters at eight polling booths (48, 49, 52, 53, 54, 55, 109 and 110) at Amour assembly segment of the Kishanganj parliamentary constituency, two (booth numbers 92 and 93) at Gopalpur assembly constituency of Bhagalpur and booth number 192 of Sultanganj assembly segment under Banka parliamentary constituency boycotted polls over different development issues,” said Srinivasa.

“Senior district officials tried to convince the villagers to come out and vote, but they were adamant and stood their ground,” said Srinivasa, adding that re-polling would not be held at such booths.

He said district officials made efforts through “miking” (making announcement over loudspeaker) to encourage voters to go to the booth and vote, providing free transport facility to booths to the elderly voters above 85 years of age, persons with disability and pregnant women, besides making arrangements for medical kit, drinking water and shed.

The voter turnout dropped as the mercury rose to around 44 degrees Celsius between 12 noon and 3pm. Interestingly, the overall voter turnout, which was 21.68% in these five constituencies at 11am, an increase by 2.7% as compared to the same time in 2019, had dropped by 1.5% by 3pm, when the voting percentage was 44.24, said poll officials.

The IMD had predicted ‘loo’ (heat wave) in Purnia, with dry weather and maximum temperature ranging between 40 and 44 degree Celsius in the five constituencies that voted Friday.

“A total of 126 people were arrested, and a vehicle and 1 litre of liquor were seized on the polling day. Among them, 46 people were arrested in Bhagalpur, 31 in Katihar, 29 in Purnia and 20 in Kishanganj,” said Jitendra Singh Gangwar, additional director general of police.

As many as 1,799 vulnerable localities had been identified in the second phase and many non-bailable warrants were executed during this period, he added.

A total ₹30.43 lakh cash was seized since the announcement of polls on March 16 and April 25 of which Bhagalpur accounted for ₹16.78 lakh, followed by Purnia ₹6.63 lakh, Katihar ₹4 lakh and Kishanganj ₹3.01 lakh. Besides, 34,384 litre of illegal liquor and 21.5 kg of narcotics were also seized, the total seizure valued at ₹4.40 crore, said Gangwar.

Of the five seats that voted on Friday, four are currently held by JD-U. Kishanganj was won by Congress in 2019.

JD(U) had given tickets to its MPs Santosh Kumar in Purnia, Dulalchand Goswami (Katihar), Ajay Kumar Mandal (Bhagalpur) and Girdhari Yadav from Banka. In Kishanganj, where it lost the last time, the JD(U) had given ticket to Mujahid Alam, a former MLA.

Barring Purnia, NDA was in direct contest with Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, with the Congress contesting three seats (Md Javed in Kishanganj, Tariq Anwar in Katihar and Ajit Sharma in Bhagalpur), and the RJD two (Bima Bharti in Purnia and Jai Prakash Yadav in Banka).

In Purnia, JD(U) turncoat Bima Bharti, who had switched over to the RJD only last month, was locked in a triangular contest with JD(U) MP Santosh Kumar and former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who was contesting as an Independent.