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Patna, Oct 28 (IANS): Polling was underway on Wednesday for the first phase of Assembly polls in Bihar amid tight security while following Covid-19 norms put in place.
The polling began at 7 a.m. for the 71 Assembly constituencies in 16 districts.
According to the State Election Commission, 2.14 crore voters will exercise their franchise in the first phase for which 31,371 polling stations have been set up. In the first phase, 1,066 candidates, including 114 women are in the fray.
While in the non sensitive constituencies voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the sensitive ones, the polling exercise will end at 3 p.m.; while in some other areas it will last till 4 p.m. Security forces have been deployed at all polling stations.
Elections are to be held in three phases for the 243 Assembly seats in Bihar. The second phase of voting for 94 seats will be on November 3 and for the third phase of 78 seats will be on November 7. Counting will take place on November 10.
Major crisis averted in Bihar as 2 IEDs defused
As the first phase of polling got underway on Wednesday in Bihar, two IEDs (cane bombs) were recovered from the Maoist-infested Aurangabad district's Dhibra area, police said. Both were defused and a calamity averted.
The IED placed under a culvert were recovered on time by the police, Dhibra police station in-charge Pramod Kumar said.
Kumar said prima facie it could be the Maoists who may have planned to execute a big incident. A probe is underway.
Earlier on Tuesday, two IEDs placed by the Maoists were also recovered in Imamganj area of Gaya district that were defused later by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Thereafter, an alert was sounded in all Maoist-affected areas.
Voting is going on in 71 constituencies in Bihar on Wednesday.