The Hindu : Front Page : 52 per cent polling in Bihar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 24, 2005

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Front Page

52 per cent polling in Bihar

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 23. An estimated 55 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise today in the final phase of polling for 93 Assembly seats in Bihar and 28 seats in Jharkhand.

The Deputy Election Commissioner, A.N. Jha, told reporters here that while the voter turnout was around 55 per cent in Jarkhand, it was around 50-52 per cent in Bihar. The overall voter turnout in Bihar and Jharkhand would be around 55 per cent, he said adding that the polling today was by and large peaceful.

STF jawan killed

In Jharkhand, he said, one Special Task Force jawan was killed in Bokaro and polling had to be stopped for sometime in a polling station due to group clashes. In Bihar, one person was killed in police firing and another person died when a bomb he was making exploded. There were also reports of inter-party clashes from Muzzarfarpur, Saran and Bettiah. In all, 238 people were arrested from Bihar today during the course of polling from various constituencies, he said.

Mr. Jha said that in the byelection to Ajnala assembly constituency in Punjab, the voter turnout was around 65 per cent. In the byelections to the three Assembly constituencies in Meghalaya, nearly 50-65 per cent polling was recorded. In the re-poll in six Haryana polling stations, about 77 per cent polling was recorded.

Asked whether the Commission had taken any decision on the reply sent by the Cabinet Secretary on the issue of the Government announcing increasing the EPF interest rates on the eve of the polls, Mr. Jha said the Commission was examining the reply and would take an appropriate decision.

On the ban imposed on some political leaders from entering their constituencies, he said the District Magistrate must have taken the decision on some legal aspect. Mr. Jha said the counting of votes in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana would begin at 8 a.m. on February 27 and bulk of the results would be available around 2 p.m. Most of the data would be put on the Election Commission's website — www.eci.gov.in — in the evening. The results would be available live on the website during the counting.

"The results and updates will be provided on real time basis" on the website, linked online with the counting centres, he said.

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