Over 16 per cent polling recorded in 4 LS seats in Bihar till 11 am

Patna/Aurangabad/Gaya, Apr 19 (PTI) Around 16.63 per cent of the 75 lakh voters in four Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar have exercised their franchise till 11 am on Friday, officials said.

The polling began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm, a senior official at the state Chief Electoral Office (Bihar) said. The voters will decide the fate of 38 candidates in these four seats.

Over 19.33 per cent of voters have exercised their franchise in Jamui Lok Sabha constituency, 17.65 per cent in Nawada, 15.04 per cent in Aurangabad and 14.50 per cent in Gaya till 11 am, officials said.

Earlier in the day, talking to reporters in Gaya, former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi who is contesting from Gaya as an NDA nominee, said, “Voters are coming to cast their votes. Voters are following what our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said ‘pahle matdan, phir jalpan’ (First vote, then have breakfast)”.

Tight security arrangements are in place at Nawada and Aurangabad, besides reserved seats of Gaya and Jamui, where a majority of nearly 5,000 polling booths have been marked as “sensitive”.

Of the four seats, Nawada has the highest number of 20.06 lakh voters, where altogether eight candidates are in the fray though the contest is primarily between Vivek Thakur, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP seeking entry into the Lok Sabha, and RJD’s Shravan Kushwaha.

Gaya has 18.18 lakh voters, but the highest number of 14 candidates. Here, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, an NDA ally, who is just a few months shy of turning 80, is making yet another bid to enter Parliament.