Patna, May 20 (UNI) Polling began on a peaceful note for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections in five seats in Bihar amid tight security arrangements at 7 am on Monday.
A total of 95.83 lakh electorates would be exercising their franchise to decide the fate of 80 candidates including LJP (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan, former Union Minister Rajeev Pratap Rudy and Chairman of Bihar Legislative Council Devesh Chandra Thakur.
Lok Sabha seats where polling is in progress are --Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Hajipur and Saran . NDA had bagged all these seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. BJP had won Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, and Saran, while JD (U) and LJP had won Sitamarhi and Hajipur, respectively.
A large number of electorate members are seen waiting in long lines for their turns to exercise their franchise. Women and first-time voters are much enthusiastic about cast their votes.
In all five seats, there is straight fight between NDA and INDIA bloc candidates. Most of the parties who had contested as constituents of Grand Alliance in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, are now contesting as partners of INDIA bloc.
In NDA, BJP is contesting the Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, and Saran Lok Sabha seats, while its allies JD (U) and LJP (Ram Vilas) are contesting Sitamarhi and Hajipur seats, respectively. In INDIA bloc, RJD is contesting four seats, barring Congress, which is contesting the Muzaffarpur seat.
In the Saran Lok Sabha seat, sitting BJP MP Rajeev Pratap Rudy, is pitted against Rohini Acharya of RJD. She is daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and donated her kidney to him during his illness due to kidney failure. Rohini has been in the news for posting satarical comments with political overtures on her social media account X.
In Hajipur, president of the LJP ( Ram Vilas) is contesting against RJD candidate Shiv Chandra Ram. In last Lok Sabha elections, former Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras won as LJP candidate from this seat. After death of LJP president and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, his party disintegrated, and one faction was headed by his son Chirag while other faction was headed by his brother Paras.
The BJP has virtually recognised LJP (Ram Vilas), headed by Chirag, as real LJP and given it all seats to contest during seat sharing in the NDA,, which were earlier contested by LJP in last Lok Sabha elections.
Chairman of Bihar Legislative Council Devesh Chandra Thakur is trying his Luck from Sitamarhi seat on JD(U) ticket.
Thakur has replaced Sunil Kumar Pintu who had won from this seat on JD(U) ticket in last Lok Sabha elections. RJD has fielded Arjun Rai against Thakur.
In Madhubani seat , Ashok Kumar Yadav is contesting on BJP ticket while RJD has fielded Mohammad Ali Ashraf Fatmi against him. Yadav is sitting MP and contesting to defend his seat.
In Muzaffarpur seat, Ajay Nishad who had won as BJP candidate from here, is now contesting on Congress ticket. Interestingly, BJP had fielded Rajbhushan Nishad as its candidate, who had contested on VIP ticket from this seat in the last Lok Sabha elections.
A total of 95,11,186 electorates, including 49,99,627 males, 45,11,259 females, and 300 third genders are eligible to exercise their franchise at 9,436 polling stations in five seats. There are 27 model polling stations, and 33 of them are being managed by women only.
Webcasting is being done at 4,699 polling stations. Paramilitary forces, state police, and homeguard jawans have been deployed to ensure free and fair polling.
Polling was held in 19 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats during the first four phases of the five-phase Lok Sabha elections in Bihar. The counting of votes would be taken up on June 4.
UNI KKS ARN