New Delhi: As the first phase of Bihar assembly elections concluded on Wednesday, Munger hit the headlines for registering the least voter turnout at 47.36 per cent, which was 52.24 per cent in 2015 assembly poll. It's the anger, fear and discontent against the district administration that kept a sizeable number of voters away from the polling booths in the district following police firing on a group of devotees in which a youth was killed and around 10 persons sustained injured in Munger town.
Among the three constituencies in Munger that went for polls in the first phase, Tarapur assembly seat recorded least voter turnout at just 47 per cent, while Jamalpur registered a turnout of 47.24 per cent and Munger recorded 47.80 per cent polling on Wednesday. RJD's Jaiprakash Yadav's 28-year-old daughter Divya Prakash is contesting from Tarapur seat.
As per local residents of the district, the low turnout in the district is the result of recent police firing on devotees over the issue of idol immersion as more than 150 persons aged between 12 to 28 years belonging to Bekapur, Sadipur, Lohapatti, Mayur Chowk and Kiranapatti localities were missing after the incident.
In a mark of protest against police brutality, voter turnout at the polling booth number 167 and 168 in Munger's Townhall were very less.
However, the locals blamed the 'arrogant' Munger SP Lipi Singh for the firing incident in which Amarnath Poddar's lonely son Anurag Kumar Poddar was killed.
"Despite Munger having an honest and upright DIG, the tragic incident happened in the district as the 2016-batch IPS officer takes decisions of her own even without consulting the district magistrate and DIG Manu Maharaj," local residents said.
As per police sources, at least 30 persons have been detained for interrogation.