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Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Josh, on Thursday has been closely monitoring each of the thousand active polling booths amid the ongoing first phase of Bihar assembly elections.
CEC Kumar, along with a team of ECI officials monitored each of the polling stations from Nirvachan Sadan, New Delhi. Bihar had recorded a voter turnout of 13.1% till 9 AM across the 121 constituencies in the first phase. The Bihar elections are being held in two phases across the state, with the second phase happening on November 6. According to the Election Commission of India, there are a total of 45,341 polling stations, including 36,733 and 8,608 rural PS in the first phase of elections. The ECI has over 926 women-managed PS, 107 PS managed by Persons with Disabilities (PwD). The ECI is also doing live webcasting of all more than 45 thousand stations. The first phase of elections commenced on 7 AM, with test votes cast between 5 AM to 7 AM. The ECI has also deployed 348 Observers for both phases of the Bihar polls. The observers include 121 General Observers, 18 Police Observers, and 33 Expenditure Observers for Phase 1, and 122 General Observers, 20 Police Observers, and 34 Expenditure Observers for Phase 2 of the elections. Following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state, there are a total of 3,75,13,302 electors in the first phase of the elections. The first phase has 1,98,35,325 male electors, 1,76,77,219 female electors, 758 third gender electors. Additionally, the first phase has 3,22,077 PwD electors, 7,37,765 18-19 year-old electors (also first time electors) and 6,736 electors above the age of 100 years. There are a total of 1192 male candidates and 122 female candidates in the electoral fray. Voters cast their ballots amid tight security in all seats. Meanwhile, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Tarapur BJP candidate Samrat Choudhary cast his vote in Munger's Tarapur while Deputy CM Vijay Sinha and BJP's Lakhisarai candidate also cast his vote. Polling will conclude at 6 pm, and due to security considerations, polling time has been curtailed to 5 pm in some constituencies. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, polling took place in three phases. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 125 seats, while the opposition alliance won 110. Among the major parties, the Janata Dal (United) bagged 43 seats and the Congress 19. The JD(U) had contested 115 constituencies and the BJP 110, whereas the RJD contested 144 seats and the Congress 70. (ANI)
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