Bihar Lok Sabha Polls: Over 75 Lakh Voters To Decide Fate Of 38 Candidates In 4 Seats

PATNA: The stage is set for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in Bihar where more than 75 lakh voters will decide the fate of 38 candidates standing in four constituencies. Tight security arrangements are in place at Nawada and Aurangabad, besides reserved seats of Gaya and Jamui, where a majority of nearly 5,000 polling booths have been marked as "sensitive", given these districts' long history of naxal violence.

Of the four seats, Nawada has the highest number of 20.06 lakh voters, where altogether eight candidates are in the fray though the contest is primarily between Vivek Thakur, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP seeking entry into the Lok Sabha, and RJD's Shravan Kushwaha. The pitch has, however, been queered by Independent candidate Binod Yadav, who resigned from the RJD after Kushwaha was fielded from the seat.

Yadav is the younger brother of Raj Vallabh Yadav, a former MLA whose wife Vibha Devi is a sitting MLA and who wields considerable influence and muscle power in the area. Gaya has the lowest number of 18.18 voters, but the highest number of 14 candidates. Here, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, an NDA ally, who is just a few months shy of turning 80, is making yet another bid to enter Parliament.

The principal challenger of Manjhi, who heads Hindustani Awam Morcha, is RJD's Kumar Sarvajeet, a former minister and sitting MLA from Bodh Gaya seat, whose late father was the Gaya MP in the 1990s. The lowest number of seven candidates are in the fray in Jamui, where their fates will be decided by 19.07 lakh voters.

The main contest, though, is between two debutantes. One of them is Arun Bharti, who has been fielded by the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). The party's president Chirag Paswan, whose sister is married to Bharti, has shifted base to Hajipur after having represented the seat for two consecutive terms.

Bharti's main challenger is Archana Ravidas of RJD, a grassroot-level political worker, who hopes to cash in on her image as a "local", as opposed to Bharti who hails from an influential political family but has no roots in Jamui. In Aurangabad, over 18 lakh voters will decide the fates of nine candidates, including sitting BJP MP Sushil Kumar Singh, who is aiming at a fourth consecutive term.

His principal rival is RJD's Abhay Kushwaha, who quit Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), an NDA ally, last month, and immediately got the RJD ticket from party president Lalu Prasad. Aurangabad has the highest number of 1,701 sensitive booths, followed by Jamui (1,659), Gaya (995) and Nawada (666). Voting will take place till 4 P.M. At these booths while at other polling stations, it will be over two hours later.

According to the Election Commission, more than 150 companies of paramilitary forces will be assisting the local police in the poll-bound districts where 76.01 lakh voters, including 36.38 lakh females and 255 belonging to the third gender, are expected to cast their votes. Special arrangements have been made for 65,811 voters who are more than 85 years of age. More than one-fifth of the total voters (16.06 lakh) are in the age group of 20 to 29 years while 92,602 are aged between 18 and 19 years.