About 55% Turnout in Bihar, 57% in Gujarat and 52% in MP
NEW DELHI, Nov 3: An estimated 54.5 per cent of the 2.85 crore electorate cast their votes in 94 constituencies across 17 districts in the second phase of polling for the 230-member Bihar state Assembly on Tuesday.
The Election Commission of India officials said the voting percentage may marginally go up when the final tally was available late in the night or by Wednesday as polling was continuing even beyond 6 P.M. at many polling booths. The voting was 55 per cent in these constituencies in the 2015 Assembly elections.
Barring some complaints of malfunctioning of some electronic voting machines at some booths which led to some heated exchanges with the polling officials, the polling by and large was peaceful, the ECI said.
The polling was also peaceful in the by-elections for 54 seats in 10 state Assemblies which went to the polls along with the second phase polling in Bihar on Tuesday.
The by-elections for eight seats in Gujarat recorded 57 per cent turnout while preliminary reports indicated 52 per cent turn out in by-elections for 8 seats in Madhya Pradesh. Polling was also held for seven seats in Uttar Pradesh, two seats each in Karnataka, Odisha, Jharkhand and Nagaland state Assemblies and one seat each in Telengana, Chhattisgarh and Haryana state Assemblies.
The by-elections for all the eight seats in Gujarat and 25 of the 28 seats in MP were caused by resignations by the sitting Congress members most of whom later joined the BJP. The results of all the by-elections will be announced on November 10 along with the Bihar election results.
(Manas Dasgupta)