In Bihar, more women than men come out to vote

Nearly 60% women electorate came out to vote, while only 54.5% men exercised their franchise

Bihar on Monday bettered its past records, as the polling percentage exceeded 57 per cent for the 49 seats across 10 districts that went to polls in the first phase, which is nearly seven percentage points more than the 2010 Assembly polls. The Election Commission of India said the voting percentage was likely to increase by one per cent or two once the final reports are received from the ground.

Nearly 60 per cent women electorate came out to vote, while only 54.5 per cent men exercised their franchise. The voting percentage in these 10 districts was 50.85 per cent in the 2010 Assembly polls, 44.08 in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and 55 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The voting was largely peaceful barring stray incidents of violence in some of the constituencies affected by Leftwing extremism. There were reports of the electorate boycotting voting in nine of the 13,212 polling stations. The districts that went to polls on Monday are Bhagalpur, Jamui, Sheikhpura, Lakhisarai, Banka, Begusarai, Munger, Samastipur, Khagaria and Navada. The total electorate of these 10 districts is 13,572,339, while 583 candidates, including 53 women, were in the fray.

Among the break-up of seats being contested by different political parties in the first phase, the Bahujan Samaj Party leads the pack with 41 candidates, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (27), Rashtriya Janata Dal (17), Lok Janshakti Party (13), Congress (8) and Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party (6). Among the Left Front constituents, the Communist Party of India has fielded 25 candidates followed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s 12.

As many as 63,624 polling personnel and 120,000 paramilitary forces were deployed by the EC. Five helicopters, including three Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), were deployed for air surveillance during polling. The second phase of polling is on Friday.