Over 26% voting in Bihar LS polls (12 p.m.)

Bihar recorded 26.33 per cent voting on Monday in the five hours of polling to the state's five constituencies in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, according to officials.

Voting was underway for the Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Hajipur and Saran seats amid tight security. Polling started at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m.

So far, voting has been peaceful, with no reports of violence from anywhere, according to the police.

In this phase, more than 87 lakh voters would decide the fate of 82 candidates.

In Saran, Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Chandrika Rai, father-in-law of party supremo Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, is pittied against senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

In Muzaffarpur, the BJP's sitting MP Ajay Nishad is contesting against Raj Bhushan Choudhary, fielded by the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) under the opposition Grand Alliance.

In the Hajipur seat, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidate Pashupati Kumar Paras is being challenged by the RJD's Shiv Chandra Ram. Paras is the younger brother of LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who decided not to contest for the first time in more than four decades.

Instead of a direct contest between the ruling NDA and the opposition Grand Alliance in Madhubani, rebel Congress candidate Shakeel Ahmad has made the battle triangular.

Sitamarhi will see a fight between the JDU's Sunil Kumar Pintu and the RJD's Arjun Rai.

--IANS

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