Patna, Apr 19 (PTI) Voting for four Lok Sabha seats in Bihar began on Friday morning, amid tight security arrangements, a senior official said.
The polling started at 7 am in Nawada, Aurangabad, Gaya and Jamui, and will go on till 6 pm.
Over 75 lakh voters will decide the fate of 38 candidates in these four constituencies.
Tight security arrangements are in place at Nawada and Aurangabad, besides reserved seats of Gaya and Jamui, where nearly 5,000 polling booths have been marked as “sensitive”, as these districts have a history of naxal violence.
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 the lowest number of 18.18 lakh voters, but the highest number of 14 candidates. Here, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, an NDA ally, is making yet another bid to enter Parliament.
The lowest number of seven candidates are in the fray in Jamui, where their fate will be decided by 19.07 lakh voters.
The main contest, though, is between two debutants. One of them is Arun Bharti, who has been fielded by the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). Party’s president Chirag Paswan, whose sister is married to Bharti, has shifted base to Hajipur after having represented the seat for two consecutive terms.
In Aurangabad, over 18 lakh voters will decide the fate of nine candidates, including sitting BJP MP Sushil Kumar Singh, who is aiming at a fourth consecutive term.
Aurangabad has the highest number of 1,701 sensitive booths, followed by Jamui (1,659), Gaya (995) and Nawada (666).
Voting will take place till 4 P.M. at these booths while at other polling stations, it will be over two hours later.
Special arrangements have been made for 65,811 voters who are more than 85 years of age.
More than one-fifth of the total voters (16.06 lakh) are in the age group of 20 to 29 years while 92,602 are aged between 18 and 19 years. PTI PKD BDC
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