The first phase of Bihar’s Assembly polls for 47 of its 243 constituencies passed off peacefully amid high security deployment on Thursday, with 54.31 per cent of voters casting their ballots despite a slow start in the early hours. All constituencies saw multi-cornered contests, with 631 candidates in the fray.
The second round will be on Sunday.
Barring a few minor skirmishes, including a bomb blast in Madhubani that left no one injured, and some 2,000 voters at 10 booths boycotting the vote in frustration over continual lack of development, polling at 10,868 booths spread across eight northeastern districts was largely peaceful. Two officials engaged in conducting the polls — Moha-mmad Habib and Madan Ram — died from cardiac arrest during the voting. EVM malfunctioning, repo-rted at six booths, was rapidly rectified to facilitate uninterrupted voting.
Katihar registered the highest turnout — 57.5 per cent — followed by Kishen-ganj and Saharsa, with 57 per cent and 56 per cent respectively. In Purnea, 55 per cent voting was registered, while Supaul and Araria saw 53 per cent polling each. Madhubani and Madhepura registered 52 and 51 per cent polling respectively. Most constit-uencies have pockets with a high concentration of Mus-lims.