Patna: Nearly 57 per cent voting was recorded in six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar which went to poll in the sixth and final phase of election on Monday.
The voting percentage was over 12 per cent higher in these seats than that in the last general elections in 2009.
Valmikinagar saw voter turnout of 57 per cent, while it was 60 per cent in West Champaran, East Champaran 56 per cent each, Vaishali 57.5 per cent, Gopalganj (SC) 54 and Siwan 56 per cent, an Election Commission statement said.
Against 56.67 voting percentage in the six seats today the corresponding percentage in 2009 poll was 44.35 per cent.
Notwithstanding soaring temperature which reached almost 43 degrees celsius, voter enthusiasm, particularly among women, were witnessed across all polling stations.
In Meenapur block of Vaishali, an elderly woman was seen arriving at a booth in a cart to cast her vote.
A large number of burqa-clad women were seen standing in queue outsides booths in Siwan parliamentary constituency.
RJD candidate from Siwan Heena Sahbab stood with women in the queue to vote.
In Gopalganj, an FIR was lodged against ruling JD(U) MLA, Amrendra Kumar Pandey alias Pappu Pandey along with nine aides for allegedly attacking a voter, Jairam Tiwari, outside a booth.
Two of the MLA`s aides have been arrested while raids to nab him was on, the police in Gopalganj said.
There were also reports of fights between BJP and JD(U) workers at some booths in East Champaran.
Complaints of problems in EVMs were reported from some booths in Gopalganj, East Champaran and elsewhere, the statement said.
Film-maker Prakash Jha and former Union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh were among the 90 candidates contesting from the six seats.
The Election Commission reduced the duration of polling by two hours in five assembly segments in view of perceived Maoist threat.
About 58,000 security personnel were deployed in the last of Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer Ajay V Nayak, flanked by Additional Chief Electoral Officers R Lakshmanan and Arvind Kumar Choudhary, expressed happiness over the peaceful end of Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Altogether 80 persons were arrested by the security forces deployed across the six constituencies.
Regarding violence in Gopalganj, where Kuchaikot MLA Amrendra Pandey alias Pappu Pandey and his supporters attacked a voter, Nayak said that stringent action was being taken against the erring persons.
The FIR lodged at the Mirganj police station in Gopalganj named concerned MLA as an accused.
"The police is making all efforts to arrest him and we expect him to be nabbed by tonight. Two of the legislator`s supporters, Parmatma Pandey and Dharmendra Pandey have already been arrested," said Nayak.
Voters boycotted elections at four polling stations over development issues. Of these, two were under Sugauli assembly segment of West Champaran parliamentary constituency, while the other two were under Harsiddhi (SC) assembly segment of East Champaran parliamentary constituency.
No repoll will be held at these places as the voters boycotted the elections voluntarily.
Bihar witnessed 56.5 per cent of its total 6.21 crore voters exercise their franchise in the six phase of elections in the state in which 40 Lok Sabha seats went to the polls.
According to the EC, this is around 12 per cent more than the 2009 general elections, when the overall voting percentage was 44.46.
Around 54.72 per cent of 3.3 crore male voters and 57.14 per cent of 2.9 crore female voters in Bihar exercised their franchise in the just concluded general elections.
This is the first time in the state that the percentage of women voters was almost equal to men. In three phases, females out-gunned males in casting their vote.
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ajay V Nayak attributed this to improved law and order in the state, as well as, better facilities at the polling stations.
"Though this phenomenon is yet to be analysed in its entirety, we could say that earlier female voters ventured to polling stations in less numbers due to law and order related problems. This time no problem or difficulty was faced by them in reaching the polling stations," said Nayak.
On the EC directives, flying squads, static surveillance teams, police forces and excise officials seized over Rs 5.91 crore of unaccounted cash and over 2.88 lakh litres of liquor during raids.
Similarly, 593 illegal firearms, 1,942 cartridges, 113 bombs, 129 kilogram of explosive material and 206 kilogram of Ganja were seized. Currency notes belonging to various countries were also seized.
"Bihar topped in the seizure of explosives in the entire country. It accounted to almost 80 per cent of the total explosives seized in India. As far as, expenditure monitoring is concerned, the teams registered police cases against 989 persons in the state of which 648 were arrested," said Nayak.
The EC officials are now gearing up to oversee smooth and peaceful counting of votes on May 16.
