 "Bihar, Elections")
Voters' participation in the third phase of the Bihar Assembly polls on Wednesday was lower than the earlier two phases.
Only 53.42 per cent of the 14.6 million electorate queued up at polling booths to cast their votes for 50 of the 243 seats that went to polls on Wednesday.
In the earlier two rounds of polling on October 12 and 16, the polling percentage was 57 and 55 per cent, respectively.
However, the voting percentage for the third phase is marginally higher than the 50.08 per cent recorded for these seats in the 2010 Assembly polls and 50.27 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Buxar with 56.7 per cent topped the voter turnout among the six districts that went to polls, while Patna was the lowest with 52 per cent. Continuing the trend in the first two phases, women outnumbered men in exercising their franchise. In this round, 54 per cent of women voters and 52.50 of men voters turned up to vote.
Voter turnout was 52.5 per cent at Saran, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad's political turf. In Nalanda, the home turf of Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the turnout was 54.11 per cent, while Bhojpur recorded a turnout of 53.33 per cent.
Polling was largely peaceful. Police resorted to mild force to disperse a crowd in the chief minister's home town of Bakhtiyarpur. The protesters were demanding compensation after the death of a child.
This phase is seen as a test of the Bharatiya Janata Party's sway over urban areas, Kumar's popularity in his home turf of Nalanda and RJD chief Lalu Prasad's political clout as his two sons, Tej Pratap and Tejashwi, are contesting from Mahua and Raghopur constituencies, which went to polls on Wednesday. This phase will also decide the fate of several former ministers such as Brishen Patel, Nand Kishore Yadav, Sharwan Kumar, Shyam Rajak and Chandrika Rai and deputy speaker Amarendra Pratap Singh.
