India’s Bihar state holds elections seen as Modi referendum

“In the 2010 Assembly poll, the voting percentage in these districts was 50.85, while this time it has gone up to 57”, said the State Election Commission.

Five helicopters would be used for air surveillance, he added.

Voting in the nine Naxal-hit seats – Tarapur, Jamalpur, Suryagraha, Rajauli (SC), Govindpur, Sikandara (SC), Jamui, Jhajha and Chakai – ended early at 3pm.

According to the Election Commission, altogether 110 persons were arrested and a few vehicles seized.

The Election Commission had also turned down a petition made by the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

An Indian polling official marks the finger of a woman voter with… If his party does well, it’ll be a huge boost to his credibility.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting against a coalition of regional parties led by incumbent chief minister Nitish Kumar. The cm also tweeted on Friday that beef exports from the country registered a drastic increase during Modi’s first year as the Prime Minister.

There are a total of 1,35,72,339 voters will decide the fate of 583 candidates for these 49 seats in 10 districts in the first phase.

The last phase of voting is on 5 November, with results due to be announced three days later.

Section 126 deals with prohibition on campaigning 48 hours before the elections but does not state that campaigning can not be held in nearby areas not going to poll on the same date.

It’s the flight or migration of men from Bihar seeking livelihood outside that got highlighted and recorded in Monday’s voter turn-out, in the first phase of polling in the 49 constituencies of south-eastern Bihar-the Gangetic belt. Modi has addressed rallies at Muzaffarnagar, Bhagalpur and a few other regions.

Prime Minister Modi had mentioned Thakur, who had introduced reservation for the backward classes in 1978 when he was the chief minister, as “Jan Nayak” in his election speech in Samastipur on October 7. Can Bihar be allowed to go into the hands of people who have become shameless, to those who are not ashamed of such money transactions?

“I saw it on television last (Sunday) night. Will you be able to give Rs 4 lakh?” A day before the first phase of Polls a stink Video Came out showing senior minister Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha purportedly accepting bribe after which he had to resign. “Such insult to JP should have never been done”.

Modi is up against an unlikely alliance of two powerful local leaders, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his predecessor Lalu Prasad Yadav, who has served time in prison for corruption.

The BJP accepted the leadership of Mr Kumar only because it wanted Bihar to develop economically.

“He is not even ashamed of the jungle raj of his previous regime”.

Nitish, too, has his reputation to save in his bid to prevent Modi, his long-standing political foe, from capturing Bihar.