Chapra: Laloo vs Rudy street-fight

‘‘By 11 am, we had complaints from 70 booths that our voters were attacked and prevented from voting,’’ said BJP spokesperson Kiran Ghai.

Instead, there was a demonstration of how to rig EVMs. In some villages, Yadavs frightened away voters frrom the opposing camp, either by firing or setting off explosions. After that, some of them would enter the booth and keep pressing the EVM button in favour of their own candidate. The process proved to be more cumbersome than the old-fashioned stuffing of ballots into boxes as there must be a specified time gap between two separate votes being cast. But the end result could prove equally effective. In Parmanandpur village, BJP workers alleged that the Mukhiya snatched their identity cards. In Basti Jalal, the booth was overrun by BJP workers, who chased away Dalits.

While the Election Commission was looking into the complaints, Laloo monitored the situation from the house of RJD minister Udit Rai, who was also the target of an attack. As stones were thrown at Rai, his bodyguards responded by firing back, injuring five people.

In Chapra town, some BJP workers complained that they were forced to vote for Laloo.