New Delhi: The 94 assembly constituencies that went to poll in the phase two of Bihar elections on Tuesday recorded 53.51 per cent turnout and the figure was likely to go up as voting continued beyond schedule in several places, the Election Commission said.
The combined voter turnout in the two phases was recorded at 53.79 per cent till 5 PM, the Commission said.
The turnout was 55.35 per cent in these constituencies in the 2015 assembly polls, the EC said. The combined figure would also go up when final figures of phase 2 are collated later in the day.
“The electoral exercise going on in the country is by far the largest exercise in the world amid the pandemic…the voter turnout in the first phase has been exceptionally good. The voter turnout has further continued and the confidence level has been much more in this phase,” EC Secretary General Umesh Sinha said.
The 94 constituencies in the second phase of elections will decide the electoral fate of RJD leader and grand alliance’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and more than 1,450 other candidates.
Polling began at 7 am, but the time for its conclusion has been extended by one hour till 6 pm to facilitate COVID-19 patients and those with symptoms of the disease to exercise their franchise during the final hour. The process, however, concluded early in the Maoist-hit areas.
Referring to the 54 assembly bypolls spread across 10 states held on Tuesday, the Commission said Chhattisgarh recorded 71.99 per cent turnout, Gujarat 57.98 per cent, Haryana 68 per cent and Jharkhand 62.51 per cent.
The turnout in Odisha was 68.08 per cent and 66.57 per cent in Madhya Pradesh. In Nagaland, the turnout was 83.69 per cent, while it was 81.44 per cent in Telangana. In Uttar Pradesh, the turnout was 51.57 per cent.
The Commission said the figure were dynamic in nature and likely to change over the next few hours.
Besides 28 seat in Madhya Pradesh, eight assembly seats went for bypolls in Gujarat, followed by seven in Uttar Pradesh, two each in Odisha, Nagaland, Karnataka and Jharkhand, and one each in Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Haryana.
In the second phase of the Bihar assembly polls, 6,240 ballot units were deployed out of which 0.36 per cent had to be replaced. Out of the 41,362 control units, 0.37 per cent were replaced. Similarly, out of the 41,362 paper trail machines, 1.31 per cent were replaced. (PTI)
