Voting in Bihar by-poll ends peacefully
October 13th, 2011 - 9:15 pm ICT by IANS
Patna, Oct 13 (IANS) Voting in the assembly by-election in Bihar’s Daroundha constituency passed off peacefully Thursday with about 45 percent voter turnout, officials said. Earlier, the officials estimated the voter turnout at 48 percent.
Polling started at 8 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. with no untoward incidents being reported despite apprehensions of violence in the constituency, Siwan district officials said.
The district administration had sealed the Bihar-Uttar Pradesh border along the constituency.
“Only a few cases of minor clashes between supporters of rival groups were reported,” a police officer said.
More than 1,000 troopers of central paramilitary forces as well as the Bihar Military Police and district police were deployed at all the 244 polling stations in the constituency.
District officials said polling was slow in the first few hours but picked up pace in the afternoon.
About 2.26 lakh people were eligible to cast their votes in the by-poll that saw nine candidates in the fray.
The by-election was necessitated following the death of ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) legislator Jagmato Devi early this year.
Jagmato Dev’s newly-wed daughter-in-law Kavita Singh is the JD-U’s candidate for the seat this time. She contested against opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Parmeshwar Singh, Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) nominee Jaynath Yadav and Congress candidate Kalika Sharan Singh.
Political observers in Daroundha said that the main fight is between the ruling JD-U, which is supported by its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the opposition RJD.
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Tags: apprehensions, bharatiya janata party, bjp, communist party of india, communist party of india marxist, congress candidate, constituency, district administration, district officials, district police, election in bihar, marxist leninist, military police, minor clashes, paramilitary forces, political observers, polling stations, rival groups, sharan, yadav