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Third
phase of Bihar polls end with 53 percent voting
Thursday, October 21, 2010 10:43:34 PM, Imran Khan, IANS
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Patna: More than five
million people voted Thursday in 48 constituencies of Bihar in the
third of six-phase elections to pick a new 243-member assembly,
the mammoth exercise going off peacefully.
But for minor clashes, police and election officials said the
balloting was conducted without trouble in the six districts of
Vaishali, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, and East and West Champaran.
The third phase was widely seen as a major test for Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar's claims of good governance and rule of law.
His Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and his ally the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) hold 27 of the 48 contested seats.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Janshakti Party hold 14 seats,
and the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Communist Party
of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) one each. Independents hold
four seats. The opposition was determined to undercut Nitish Kumar
in Thursday's electoral region.
Bihar Police chief Neelmani told IANS that nearly 150
troublemakers were arrested for trying to disrupt the elections in
some polling centres.
Balloting began on a low key but picked up as the day progressed.
By 5 p.m., around 53 percent of the 10.3 million eligible voters
had exercised their franchise.
Defying Maoist calls to boycott the elections, men and women
queued up outside many polling centres even before they opened.
After the elections ended, JD-U leader Rajiv Ranjan Sinha claimed
that the ruling alliance was sure to increase its seat tally. "We
are sure to do better than last time," he said.
BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said it was now certain that the NDA
will return to power.
But RJD leader Ram Kirpal Yadav said the RJD-LJP combine will
surprise everyone.
As in the first two rounds of elections Oct 21 and 24, a section
of voters refused to vote Thursday to denounce what they said the
government's failure to carry out development work in their area.
One reason for the smooth conduct of the elections was the
deployment of tens of thousands of paramilitary forces. At the
same time, the Sashastra Seema Bal sealed the India-Nepal border
and the border with Uttar Pradesh.
RJD leader and former railway minister Lalu Prasad is MP from
Saran but Paswan was defeated in the last Lok Sabha election in
Hajipur in Vaishali.
The heavyweights in this phase included former chief minister
Rabri Devi, contesting from Raghopur in Vaishali and Sonepur in
Saran district, JD-U's Birshen Patel from Vaishali and BJP's Renu
Devi from Bettiah.
The next rounds of elections will be held Nov 1, 9 and 20. Votes
will be counted Nov 24.
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