35 to 40 percent voting in Bihar till 2 p.m.

PATNA - An estimated 35 to 40 percent voters exercised their franchise so far in the first phase of Bihar Assembly election on Thursday.

The polling, which began at 7 a.m, was going on peacefully till the reports came in.

Enthusiasm among voters was noticed at most of the booths in Madhubani, Madhepura, Supaul, Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, Araria and Saharsa districts where many elderly women queued up in large numbers even before voting began at 7 a.m.

Polling will continue upto 5 p.m. However, in Simri Bakhtiarpur Assembly constituency polling will close at 3 p.m due to flooding.

Around 1.07 crore voters, including 50.2 lakh women and 3,829 service voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise at 10,454 polling centres in the state.

Prominent among the 631 contestants are senior Janata Dal (United) ministers Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Narendra Narain Yadav, Renu Kumari, Hari Prasad Sah, Congress nominee Ranjeet Ranjan (wife of former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav), state Congress chief Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Lovely Anand (wife of former MP Anand Mohan).

The borders with Madhubani, Supaul, Kishanganj and Araria districts have been sealed and checking introduced to prevent entry of trouble-makers.

It has been reported that ‘Observers’ and ‘Micro Observers’ have been appointed to ensure free and fair polls.

The second phase of election will take place on October 24, the third phase on October 28 for 48 seats, the fourth on November1 for 42 seats, the fifth phase on November 9 for 25 seats and the sixth and last phase on November 20 for 26 seats.

Counting of votes will take place on November 24. (ANI)