Noorjehan Khatoun looked puzzled as she came out of a polling booth in Danapur. ‘‘There were so many buttons, but I think I pressed the right one,’’ she said. Today was Bihar’s first experiment with electronic voting machines (EVMs) as police firing and skirmishes marked the byelections to Danapur and Chattapur constituencies.While 55 per cent people cast their votes in Danapur, the turnout at Chattapur was 45-50 per cent. Official sources said supporters of RJD candidate Ramanand Yadav and BJP nominee Satya Narain Singh clashed at several places outside polling centres in the riverine areas of Danapur.Police fired in the air outside a booth near Neura in Danapur to chase away supporters of two rival parties trying to disrupt the poll process. BJP’s Satya Narain Singh alleged that RJD supporters threatened him with a gun. ‘‘RJD men threatened me and one of them pulled out a gun,’’ he said.Though the EVMs added to the curiosity, many voters were left confused. At one booth in Diara in Danapur, only 90 people of the 662 voters had turned up to cast their votes by 11 am. ‘‘I just pressed whatever I felt like pressing,’’ said Sitkumari Devi, when asked to comment on the EVMs. ‘‘Nobody told how to use the machines before but people inside the booth helped us,’’ said Anwar Ali, another voter.
