Bihar Fourth Phase Election Completed with 51% voting

In Fourth Phase voting was held in 42 constituencies, which include Patna and some Maoist-affected areas, proceeded peacefully with people lining up to cast their votes early morning.

Fourth phase had some important constituencies which included that of chief minister Nitish Kumar and ex CM Rabri Devi.

In Patna, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi cast their votes at a polling booth in Digha constituency.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to cast his vote at his native town of Bakhtiyarpur in Patna district.

The heavyweights in this phase include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwarts and ministers Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Bhagalpur), Nand Kishore Yadav (Patna Sahib), Ramnarayan Mandal (Banka) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) minister Damodar Raut.

Apparently the figure of 51.9 per cent may not be too bad. But there is another aspect too. The voting pcrcentage, according to initial reports, was much higher in small towns and rural pockcts of Barh, Bakhtiyarpur, Maner, Fatuha and even Danapur, where bomb blasts did disrupt the voting at one or two places, than the four seats of urban Patna, for example, Patna Saheb, Kumhrar, Bankipur and Digha. Thus it was the good turnout in the rural pockets, which helped the figure reach 51 per cent.

Similarly Bhagalpur, Banka and Munger too witnessed slightly less turnout than the first three phases. But inclement weather in east Bihar, espcially in Banka, where it rained in the morning, is also responsible for the fall in percentage. The percentage was less than 50 in Jamui and Lakhisarai as some parts of these two districts are hit by Maoists’ violence.

 Unlike other parts of north Bihar, where the Janata Dal (United) was strong and taking on the RJD-LJP alliance in most of these urban centres it is the BJP versus others. Urban voter turnout, especially in Patna, had often been low. Even this time the election failed to generate much enthusiasim. This notwithstanding the fact that the largest number of admirers of the Nitish Kumar government live in the state capital. Efforts by various groups and even media to make the people conscious about their democratic right to exercise their adult franchise failed.

The special feature of the fourth phase of poll in Bihar is that it was held in the two most important urban centres of Bihar, Patna and Bhagalpur. Besides, old towns like Munger, Begusarai etc also went to the poll. Yet this phase registered less turnout than earlier ones. The assembly constituencies of Patna district saw 51.9 percent votes, which is much better than 39.8 per cent last time.

Next Round i.e phase 5 is to be held on 9th November 2010.

For complete Election Schedule of Bihar elections click here..>>