Bihar: Voting for five seats in third phase of Lok Sabha poll on Tuesday

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The polling for five out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar is scheduled to take place in the third phase of Lok Sabha election on Tuesday.

A total of 82 candidates are in the fray and the votes will be cast at 9076 polling stations.

The polling will take place in Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Araria, Madhepura and Khagaria parliamentary constituencies.  As per the data issued by CEO Bihar office, there are total 8909263 voters, which includes 8899815 General Voters and 9448 Service voters. Out of 8899815 General voters, 4655306 are male voters, 4244284 are female voters and 225 are third gender voters. 

Officials said that para-military forces have been deployed at all polling booths and drones will be used for surveillance.

In Madhepura, four-time MP Sharad Yadav is contesting from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ticket and he is up against JD-U's Dinesh Chandra Yadav and independent Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav. It is to be noted that Pappu Yadav is currently the sitting MP from this seat.

Political experts maintain that caste equations will play a major role in deciding the preference of the voters in these five seats. The BJP-led NDA is banking on the upper castes, EBCs, OBCs and Dalits; the Grand Alliance is hopeful that the OBCs, EBCs, Muslims and Dalits will support them.

The polling for Gaya, Nawada, Jamui and Aurangabad parliamentary constituencies were held in the first phase on April 11, while Kishanganj, Purnea, Katihar, Bhagalpur and Banka constituencies went to poll in the second phase on April 18.