Kolkata: Manipur recorded the highest turnout of 62 per cent while Jharkhand recorded the lowest percentage of 28.07 voters exercising their franchise till 2 PM in five states in eastern India that went to polls on Thursday.
Sixty per cent voters exercised their vote in West Bengal while 45 per cent voters cast their ballot in Odisha. Polling is underway in 11 seats in Odisha, seven in Bihar, six in Jharkhand four in West Bengal and one in Manipur to decide the electoral fate of 366 candidates.
Polling was also being held for 77 Assembly seats in Odisha where 747 candidates, including 65 women, were contesting. In Jharkhand, three CRPF personnel and a civilian driver were injured in a landmine blast by Maoists, who also fired on a CRPF patrol injuring one personnel in near Jhumra hills in Bokaro district.
Maoists blew up railway lines in the district disrupting train services.
A pressure cooker bomb was recovered near a polling booth in Maoist-hit Saranda forest, an hour before polling began in the Singhbhum (reserved) constituency, police said.
A Presiding Officer Bamia Soren was arrested for influencing people to vote for Independent nominee Geeta Koda, the wife of sitting MP and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, Returning Officer of West Singhbhum, Abu Waqar Siddqui P said.
In West Bengal, CPI-M in a complaint alleged that a party worker was injured when Trinamool Congress supporters attacked him at Shikarpur area of Mathabhanga.
Forward Bloc secretary Udayan Guha said three Left parties’ workers were injured and hospitalised.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti and her two uncles Ramkripal Yadav and Ranjan Yadav, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, former Home Secretary R K Singh and Bhojpuri actor Kunal Singh are among the 117 candidates in the fray in Bihar.
In Jharkhand, among 106 candidates, prominent ones were Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Karia Munda of BJP, Jayant Sinha, son of Jaswant Sinha, former Team India Manager Amitabh Chowdhury of JVM(P), former deputy Chief Minister, Suresh Mahato of Ajsu party and former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay of Congress.
In West Bengal, among the 47 candidates were GJM-backed BJP candidate S S Ahluwalia and Trinamool Congress nominee Baichung Bhutia, RSP sitting MP Manohar Tirkey and CPI(M)’s Mahendra Roy in Jalpaiguri.
In Odisha, the 98 candidates included Congress stalwart and union minister Srikant Jena and former union minister Arjun Sethi of the BJD and a host of MPs including Tathagat Satpathy, Baijayant Panda, Pinaki Mishra, Bhatruhari Mahtab.
Among the 747 candidates in the Assembly election were state ministers Maheshwar Mohanty, Pratap Keshari Deb, Badri Narayan Patra, Bijoyshree Routray and Damodar Rout. Among the eight candidates contesting in Manipur, prominent ones were sitting Congress MP Th Meinya, former Manipur University Professor R K Ranjan of BJP, former Manipur Rifles commandant S Manaobi of Trinamool Congress, senior CPI leader M Nara and the lone woman candidate O Indira an Independent.
The Congress held the prestigious seat for 10 years. (PTI)
