46.66 pc voter turnout for 8 LS seats till 3 pm in Bihar

A voter turnout of 46.66 per cent was recorded till 3 pm on Sunday in eight parliamentary constituencies across the state of Bihar.

According to the Election Commission of India, of the eight Lok Sabha seats, voting percentage was the highest in Buxar (48.31 per cent), followed by Karakat (48.26 per cent), Jahanabad (48.03 per cent), Arrah (47.65 per cent), Pataliputra (47.51 per cent), Nalanda 47.34 per cent, Sasaram-SC (47.23 per cent) and Patna Sahib (40.07 per cent).

The bigwigs whose fate will be decided in the election today are Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, his Congress rival Shatrughan Sinha (Patna Sahib), Central ministers Ashwini Kumar Chaubey (Buxar), Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav and his RJD rival Misa Bharti (Pataliputra), and R K Singh (Arrah) and former Lok Sabha Speaker and senior Congress leader Meira Kumar (Sasaram).

Among the early voters in the capital city were Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi.

Bihar's capital Patna is offering a unique experience to the electorates as special arrangements such as creche, breastfeeding room and first aid facilities have been set up here.

Meanwhile, several violence incidents were reported from different seats undergoing poll on Sunday. Polling was stopped at booth number 101 and 102 in Sarkuna village of Paliganj after a clash broke out between two groups.

A police official on polling duty was allegedly attacked for stopping bogus voting at polling booth 49 in Arrah.

"We received information of stone pelting but there has been no disturbance in voting. Some people might have tried to create trouble. They have been chased out," said Arrah's Additional District Magistrate.

Apart from Bihar, polling is currently underway for 13 seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, nine in West Bengal, eight seats in Madhya Pradesh, all four constituencies in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and one seat in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Over 10.01 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in the seventh phase of polling. There are 918 candidates in the fray. Polling began at 7 am across the eight constituencies and will continue till 6 pm. The results will be announced on May 23.