About 60 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise in the final round of five-phased polling in the Bihar Assembly elections on Thursday, thereby helping the state register an overall figure of 56.80 per cent – the highest in Assembly election in the state’s history.
Deputy Election Commisioner Umesh Sinha said the entire poll process in the state in all 243 seats was conducted in a peaceful manner without any major untoward incident.
“While the total poll percentage for the fifth phase of polls is 60 per cent, the overall figures for all five phases in Bihar has been calculated at 56.80 per cent,” he said, adding “this is the highest in Assembly polls in the state.”
Fifty-seven constituencies spread over nine districts went to polls on Thursday.
The staggered Bihar Assembly polls for the 243-seat Assembly began on October 12, while the counting of votes will take place on November 8 (Sunday).
The poll panel said this year’s Assembly polls in all the five rounds saw women outnumbering men in turnout – 59.92 per cent against 54.07 per cent. Polling in the final phase also saw women’s turnout ahead of men – 63.6 per cent against 56.05 per cent.
The total poll percentage in Bihar during Lok Sabha polls last year stood at 55.38 per cent, while in the Assembly polls in the state in 2010 the figure stood at 52.65 per cent.
Sinha said the participation of women as compared to men voters in the current election process was “very enthusiastic.” “Even senior citizens and differently-abled came out in good numbers to vote,” he said.
He added the elections in Bihar were “well-conducted”, despite speculations about law and order, Naxal menace and communal situation.
The Deputy EC informed that the overall cash seizure in the state stood at over Rs 38 crore which included Rs 19 crore seized by the Income Tax department as part of a special operation against hawala operators in Delhi and Bihar.
“Over 2.6 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 3.5 crore has been seized in the state,” he said. Over 45,000 arms were deposited with the police during the polls, Sinha said.
He added a total of eight cases of paid news were detected in the state, out of which seven were confirmed by the media monitoring committee.
Asked about the Commission issuing notices to political parties in cases like that of advertisements being brought out in newspapers by them, Sinha said “suitable measures were taken by the EC to ensure peace” duirng the polls process.
He added that till the fourth phase, re-polling has taken place at only two polling stations.