Bihar takes toll of good turnout

Polling was also held simultaneously for Tripura and Meghalaya State Assemblies, which have 60 seats each.

Lakshadweep recorded the highest percentage of polling at 90. In Tripura, 85 per cent of the electorate ignored a militant boycott call to exercise their franchise, while 65 to 70 per cent cast their votes in Meghalaya.

In Punjab, Karnataka, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh about 50 per cent of electorate cast their votes, while 40 to 45 per cent voted in Rajasthan and Bihar.

Expressing satisfaction over the conduct of the polls, Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill said despite threats people had reaffirmed their faith in the democraticprocess and come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise.

Questioned about reports of violence from different parts of the country, Gill said, “For a country of one billion with an electorate of over 600 million, of whom 250 million are voting today, minor incidents of violence have to be viewed in perspective.”

However, the Commission would examine all the complaints they had received so far from across the country and decide on whether or not re-polls had to be ordered in specific Assembly segments, Gill said.

In Bihar, which witnessed large-scale violence, presiding officers of six booths of Lohardagga constituency were kidnapped by extremists while Rajya Sabha member and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) nominee for Chatra, Nagmani, escaped with minor sharpnel injuries in a bomb attack by extremists.

According to officials in Patna, four people were killed in Khagaria, three each in Chatra and Giridih near Bokaro steel city, two each in Palamau, Jehanabad, Munger and one each in Sasaram andAra.

The Election Commission (EC) said it had received reports of one more death in Munger and another in Patna. About 1,100 people were arrested from different places in Bihar on charges of disrupting the poll process.

Bihar Chief Electoral Officer AK Basu said he had received complaints of irregularities from almost 500 booths, 400 of them from Patna alone.

Voter turnout was affected in the extremists-hit Gaya, Aurangabad, Chatra, Palamu and Lohardagga districts of south and central Bihar where around 40 per cent polling was reported, Chief Secretary BP Verma told a press conference.

Polling was suspended in some booths of Madhepura, Giridih, Bhagalpur, Dumka, Aurangabad, Chatra, Jehanabad and Patna constituencies following snatching of ballots and ballot boxes.

In Madhepura, where RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav and his Janata Dal (JD) counterpart Sharad Yadav are contesting, polling was suspended in four booths. Sharad Yadav, along with hundreds of his supporters, sat on a dharna demandingcountermanding of election in the constituency for alleged large-scale booth grabbing by RJD supporters.

The outlawed Maoist Communist Centre, in a bid to enforce the boycott call, struck in a big way setting off four landmine blasts in Giridih, Chatra and Palamu constituencies killing six members of polling parties including a BSF havildar and two Homeguards and injuring seven others.

In Uttar Pradesh, where 52 out of 85 constituencies went to poll, reports of violence came in from Mainpuri, Varanasi, Phulpur, but there were no casualties. There were also some incidents of ballot-paper snatching in five constituencies.

Today’s polling, covering a total electorate of about 25 crore, would decide the fate of 2,200 candidates including Prime Minister IK Gujral, former Prime Ministers Chandra Shekhar and HD Deve Gowda, besides several Union Ministers, Samata Party chief George Fernandes, Bahujan Samaj Party leader and former Chief Minister Mayawati and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli ManoharJoshi.