Over 54% voter turnout

New Delhi: It seems the initiatives taken by the Bihar Election Commission to bring voters to exercise their franchise has worked well to some extent as the second phase of Bihar Assembly elections for 94 seats witnessed over 54.64 per cent voter turnout on Tuesday. The total number of electors in 94 constituencies was 2.85 crore.

As per the Election Commission, this is the estimated vote percentage till 6 pm, which may go up after final tabulation of the voter turnout as voting continued beyond scheduled time in several areas.

Though this year's overall poll percentage is slightly less than the 2015 Assembly elections, which was 56.17 per cent, the voter turnout in the districts of Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Darbhanga, Saran, Begusarai was higher than the 2015 poll percentage.

With just 48.23 per cent voting till 6 pm, the poll percentage of Patna remained lowest among the 17 districts where polling for the second phase was held on Tuesday.

The fate of RJD leader and Mahagathbandhan's chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap, Shatrughan Sinha's son Luv Sinha and more than 1,450 other candidates have been sealed in the EVM.

Among the 17 districts, the highest poll percentage of 59.98 has been recorded in Muzaffarpur followed by West Champaran at 59.69 per cent, Begusarai at 58.82 per cent and Sitamarhi at 57.40 per cent.

Among the 94 constituencies that went for the polls on Tuesday, Chanpatia Assembly seat in West Champaran recorded the highest turnout of 63.62 per cent followed by Ujiarpur at 62.20 per cent, Maner at 61.80 per cent, Kanti at 61.43 per cent and Baruraj at 61.20 per cent while Patna's Digha seat recorded the lowest voting at just 34.50 per cent followed by district's high-profile Bankipur seat that registered 35.90 per cent polling till 6 pm.

Vaishali district's Raghopur, from where Tejashwi Yadav is contesting, has recorded 54 per cent polling and Hasanpur, from where Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav is in the fray, has recorded 57 per cent voting.

Prominent personalities, including Governor Phagu Chauhan, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, Tejashwi Yadav, Rabri Devi, and LJP president Chirag Paswan cast their votes at their respective polling booths. Bihar's Agriculture Secretary N Saravana Kumar also cast his vote in Patna.

Polling began at 7 am, which continued till 6 pm to facilitate Covid patients and those with symptoms of the disease. The voting concluded early in the Maoist-hit areas. There were a total of 634 model booths for the second phase of polling.