Patna: Average voter turnout marked the by-elections to the Araria Lok Sabha constituency and the Jehanabad and Bhabua Assembly seats in Bihar on Sunday as polling was held in peaceful conditions, without any violence.

Araria saw a 57 per cent voter turnout, while Jehanabad and Bhabua witnessed 50.6 and 54.3 per cent polling, respectively. These seats had fallen vacant owing the demise of their representatives.

"The highest voter turnout of 57 per cent was witnessed in the Araria Lok Sabha bypoll. Webcasting was done from 197 polling stations and officials, including those from the Election Commission, watched it to keep tabs on the voting," said Bihar's chief electoral officer (CEO) Ajay V. Nayak.

"Polling was peaceful at all places. No violence happened. There was one rumour of firing at booth number 94 in Jehanabad but the police have denied any such incident. In fact, the firing incident was in the adjoining Arwal district," Nayak added.

Bihar police additional director-general (ADG), police headquarters, S.K. Singhal said the firing was around 500m from Shakoorabad polling centre in Jehanabad, but the area fell in Arwal district.

"Some anti-social elements fired shots with an intention to influence polling at Uttarpatti Government Primary School there. However, polling continued peacefully. A case has been registered at Kurtha police station in Arwal in this connection and further action is being taken," Singhal added.

Polling was obstructed at 20 polling stations in Bhabua constituency, as the electronic voting machines (EVM) turned out to be faulty and could not be repaired or replaced in time.

In Araria, ex-MP Taslimuddin's son, Mohammad Sarfaraz Alam, who resigned as a JDU MLA and joined the RJD, was pitted against BJP's Pradip Singh. The Bhabua seat saw a fight between ex-MLA Anand Bhushan Pandey's widow Rinki Rani Devi (BJP) and Congress candidate Shambhu Patel, while in Jehanabad, the late MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav's son, Suday Yadav, was pitted against JDU's Abhiram Sharma.

This is the first electoral battle in Bihar following the fall of Grand Alliance government in July 2017, when chief minister Nitish Kumar dumped the RJD-Congress combine to join the BJP-led NDA.

This is a litmus test for both the alliances. The RJD is in fray without its chief Lalu Prasad, who is behind the bars in a fodder scam case.