Bihar’s truncated electoral rolls spawned a record turnout during Thursday’s first phase of polling, but a deputy chief minister had to endure a shower of cow dung on his car while another candidate’s vehicle faced a hail of stones.
The Election Commission toasted “the highest ever voter turnout of 64.66% in the history of Bihar”, suggesting the first-phase polling had “concluded peacefully in a festive mood”.
So far, the record for Assembly poll turnouts in Bihar was 62.57 per cent, seen in 2000 when a hung House allowed Nitish Kumar to wrest the chief minister’s chair for a week, briefly punctuating the 15-year rule of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi.
The record Lok Sabha turnout in Bihar was 64.6 per cent, achieved in 1998.
Thursday’s vote that spanned half of Bihar — 121 of the 243 constituencies — marked the first major polling in India after the controversial, citizenship-test-based Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
The exercise shaved almost nine per cent off the previous voter list, and even after the new registrations Bihar’s electorate is almost six per cent smaller.
In Lakhisarai constituency near Munger, cow dung was flung at the car of deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha of the BJP in Khoriari village.
Local people appear to have done this to protest the poor condition of roads in the village, although Sinha dismissed the demonstrators as Rashtriya Janata Dal goons.
Deputy inspector-general Rakesh Kumar visited the village and assured Sinha that an FIR would be filed, after the minister threatened a sit-in at the site, demanding more central forces.
“These are RJD goons. They know the NDA is returning to power, that’s why they have resorted to hooliganism. They turned away my polling agent and didn’t let him vote,” Sinha told reporters.
Outgoing MLA Satyendra Yadav of the CPM had his car stoned after a quarrel with unidentified people in Jaitpur village of Manjhi constituency in western Bihar.
These incidents of violence against two candidates on polling day prompted chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to direct the Bihar director-general of police to take immediate action.
The Bihar chief electoral officer’s X handle crackled with efforts at swatting away RJD and Congress claims of malpractice. The poll body denied having deliberately slowed down polling, stopping voters from being ferried on boat in Patna, or using faulty electronic voting machines.
The railways countered Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav’s claim that the ministry was transporting migrant workers to and fro, free of cost, to vote for the BJP.
“This is the same Modi government that was cramming these migrant workers into trains to send them to Bihar during Chhath. At that time, no arrangements were made for the migrant Biharis,” Tejashwi alleged.
“Even during the Corona period, Bihar’s workers had walked thousands of kilometres to return to Bihar, but at that time, no special train arrangements were madefor them!”
The railway ministry was silent on the allegation about migrant workers being transported to vote, but said on its Railways Fact Check handle: “This claim is misleading. Special trains have been operated by Indian Railways during festivals for the convenience of passengers, so that passengers across the country can get facilities for a comfortable and safe journey.”
According to the poll panel: “121 Assembly Constituencies in 18 districts in the State went to polls today, with a total electorate of over 3.75 crore.... Over 4 Lakh Polling related Staff reached the respective polling stations by 11.20pm last night itself.
“Mock polls were completed before 7am today in the presence of over 67,902 Polling Agentsappointed by 1,314 contesting candidates and polling began peacefully at all 45,341 polling stations simultaneously.”
As part of the International Election Visitors’ Programme, 16 delegates from South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Belgium and Colombia witnessedthe polling.