Final turnout to be higher than provisional 54.26% in first phase of polls for 71 seats
Voters of Bihar defied coronavirus as the provisional turnout of 54.26 per cent in the first phase of the Assembly polls for 71 seats matched the figure of 2015. It is expected that the final percentage could go still higher as the Election Commission is updating the data with more inputs from 71 constituencies spread across 16 districts.
Election Commission Secretary-General Umesh Sinha told reporters that the “projected” voter turnout was expected to be more than those in the last Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
The large turnout of “maskless” people in the rallies of political leaders during the last two weeks showed that despite repeated appeal by the Prime Minister himself, the people were not ready to live under the fear of the virus anymore. On Wednesday, they exhibited the same disdain for the virus and queued up before the polling booths, much to the relief of poll officials.
The majority of the 71 seats came under what was once known as the “flaming fields of Bihar” due to bloody clashes between the private army of upper caste landlords and the Maoists. The situation is near normal and the influence of the Maoists is limited to only some pockets now. Still, in the 35 Naxal-hit areas, the polling hours were curtailed.
Polling was conducted till 3 pm in four Naxal-affected constituencies of Chainpur, Nabinagar, Kutumba, and Rafiganj while in the other five Naxal-hit constituencies it went up to 5 pm. In the remaining 26 Naxal-affected constituencies, polling was held till 4 pm.
Of the 71 seats, 12 of them were decided by very narrow margins in the 2015 polls. The victory margin of the CPI(M-L) candidate from Tarari in 2015 was just 271 votes.
The presence of Chirag Paswan-led LJP has turned the contest interesting as his party has fielded candidates on each and every seats against the JD(U) candidate. Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed three more rallies in the State on Wednesday did not mention Chirag’s name or said anything to clear the air among the cadres of the BJP about speculation that Chirag enjoys the blessings of the BJP big wigs.
This is the first major election being conducted amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic in the country. According to the provisional data, the highest poll percentage is recorded in Banka district at 59.57 per cent. It had recorded 56.43 per cent in 2015 polls.
While the overall number was satisfactory for a State like Bihar which is not known for huge turnouts, the police firing during the immersion of Goddess Durga’s idols two days ago played a spoiler in Munger. .The district registered the least voter turnout at 47.36 per cent. It had recorded 52.24 per cent turnout in 2015.
The poll panel said since the announcement of the elections, 534 arms, 193 cartridges and three bombs were seized from the areas that went to polls in the first phase. As many as 159 people were detained as a preventive measure during the polling on Wednesday, the poll panel said.
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the Election Commission was “discouraged” from holding the Bihar Assembly polls amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but the poll panel was of the view that carrying out the electoral exercise was a “leap of faith and not a leap in the dark”.
In a break from the past, the CEC attended the poll panel briefing here on voter turnout in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections held on Wednesday. Usually, the briefing is held by the deputy election commissioners concerned. The Chief Election Commissioner and fellow election commissioners announce schedule for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
“We (EC), in a way I would say, were also discouraged as to why elections are being held amid Covid. But you would recall I had said on September 25 (when Bihar poll schedule was announced) that for EC, this poll is a leap of faith and not leap in the dark,” Sunil Arora said.
Another senior poll panel official later said the “projected” turnout was expected to be more than that in the 2015 Assembly polls and the Lok Sabha elections. He said of the 16 districts which went to polls in this phase, 12were Left-wing extremism (LWE) affected.
“Out of the 12, four are considered as extreme Left-wing affected,” he said, while expressing happiness at the smooth conduct of the polling exercise. Based on the terrain and inputs provided by the district authorities, poll timings were shorter in the LWE districts.
In the 2015 Assembly polls, the voter turnout in phase one was 54.94 per cent, while in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the corresponding figure was 53.54 per cent, the CEC said.
Thursday, 29 October 2020 | PNS | Patna
