Patna: The monthlong Bihar assembly elections got underway on Monday, as voters turned out in large numbers to cast their votes amid tight security arrangements.
Braving the scorching sun and a lurking Maoist threat, an average 60 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in the first of five phases, which passed off peacefully barring stray incidents of clashes between rival party supporters.
A total of 49 assembly constituencies spread over 10 districts of eastern Bihar went to the polls in the first phase of the elections, which are being considered critical for both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and incumbent Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
While Modi desperately needs a win to continue his reformist agenda, which has become stuck due to inadequate strength in the Rajya Sabha, and to also prove that his popularity is still not on the wane, it means a sort of “political survival” for Kumar who is fighting a toughest battle in alliance with his once-time foe-turned-friend Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad, widely painted as the “protagonist of the Jungle Raj” by the opposition BJP.
Of the total 49 constituencies going to poll in the first phase, most have been identified as “Maoist-hit” yet this has not deterred voters from showing up at the booths.
Polling started off to a slow start but picked up with each passing hour.
TV footage showed long queues of voters — young, old and women — at most of the polling stations and patiently waiting for their turn to cast their votes.
In Samastipur district, a group of villagers was seen reaching the polling booths riding on elephants, horses and bullock carts and singing folk songs which displayed the enthusiasm among voters.
In Munger, a 96-year-old man Mahendra Prasad arrived at a polling booth to cast his votes on a wheelchair, pushed by his family members.
“The polling has been entirely peaceful, which is indeed a big achievement for all of us. We don’t have [reports] about any major incident of violence reported from any part of the areas where the polling was held,” Bihar’s additional chief electoral office R Laxmanan said.
He gave credit to the adequate security arrangements as well as consciousness among the voters behind the peaceful polling in the state.
Authorities had deployed 120,000 security personnel in an around the total 13,212 polling booths to ensure a fee and violence-free polling where altogether 13.5 million voters will decide the fate of 583 candidates in the fray, including 54 women candidates.
Opinion remains divided among the voters about this election but many say they want a change in the present regime to give a new momentum to the engine of growth and development.
“Nitish Kumar with the NDA would have been simply fantastic but his tie-up with Lalu Prasad brings fresh fear among the general masses. They have still not forgotten the ‘Jungle Raj’ of Prasad,” said Alok Kumar, a resident from Bhagalpur, one of the 10 districts which went to polls today.
He said his areas still lack basic amenities such as power, potable water and good roads whereas the silk industry was totally in death bed owing to negligent attitudes of the present regime.
Another voter Ashwini Kumar said the people want change since Bihar has not moved forward in the past 25 years. “Frankly speaking, Bihar has been pushed behind in matter of development and overall situation has deteriorated in the past 25 years,” said Kumar. He blamed Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar for the “pathetic condition” of the state.
