2015 Bihar Assembly Elections Phase V Thursday Nov 05,2015

 

The stage is set for the fifth and final round of voting for 57 seats in the Bihar Assembly polls on Thursday to decide the fate of senior minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav of Janata Dal United and Rashtriya Janata Dal Legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui among others.

 

The 57 constituencies include 24 in the Seemanchal region bordering West Bengal and spread over nine districts of Madhubani, Darbhanga, Supual, Madhepura, Saharsa, Araria, Kisanganj, Purnea and Katihar.

A total of 1,55,43,594 electors are eligible to vote to decide the fate of 827 candidates, including 58 women.

Prominent among those whose fate will be decided in the last phase include senior minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav of JDU (Supual), RJD Legislature party leader Siddiqui (Alinagar), Minister Narendra Narayan Yadav (Alamnagar) and Lalu Prasad's 'Man Friday" Bhola Yadav (Bahadurpur).
Except for two seats in Simri Bhaktiyarpur, polling will take place on the remaining 55 constituencies at scheduled 7 AM to 5 PM, Additional Chief Electoral Officer R Lakshmanan said.

In the two Naxal-hit constituencies - Simri Bhakhtiyarpur and Mahisi in Saharsa district, the poll time has been cut short by two hours and would end at 3 PM.

In 2010, the BJP had bagged 23 out of the 57 seats where election will take place tomorrow. The JDU, which was with the BJP in the last poll, had bagged 20 seats, the RJD of Lalu Prasad 8, Congress 3, LJP 2 and Independent 1.

The BJP has fielded a maximum of 38 candidates, while LJP nominees are contesting in 11. The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party of Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha has put up candidates in five constituencies and Hindustani Awam Morcha of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in three.

JDU candidates are trying their luck in 25 seats, RJD in 20 and Congress 12.

Record 60% voters cast ballots in 5th phase of Bihar polls

An estimated 60% of over 1.55 crore voters cast their ballots in 57 assembly seats that went to poll in the fifth and final phase in Bihar on Thursday, the highest in the current election.
The polling passed off peacefully barring an incident of police firing in which nobody was hurt. Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer Ajay V Nayak said while Thursday's 60 per cent voter turnout was the highest in the current elections, the overall polling percentage in five phases was recorded at 56.8 per cent, much more than 52.65 per cent registered in 2010 assembly polls when JD(U) and BJP had together won 206 seats out of a total of 243 as part of NDA.