Tuesday, February 1 2005 17:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Curtains came down this evening (Feb 1, 2005) on a fortnight-long violence-marred campaigning for the 64 Assembly constituencies spread over 12 naxal-hit districts in Bihar going to polls in the first phase on February 3.

Around 1.42 crore voters are eligible to participate in Thursday's (Feb 3, 2005) exercise to decide the fate of 826 candidates in the fray.

Notable candidates include, Speaker of the outgoing State Assembly Sadanand Singh (Kahalgaon) of the Congress, senior RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) ministers Jagdanand Singh (Ramgarh), Shakeel Ahmed Khan (Gurua), Raghvendra Pratap Singh (Barhara), Mahabali Singh (Chainpur) and Prayag Choudhury (Sikandara) and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) legislature party leader in the Assembly Aswini Choubey (Bhagalpur). Samajwadi Party's State president Dadan Singh alias Dadan Pahelwan is also in the fray from Dumraon.

The high-voltage campaigning saw several political stalwarts, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her BJP and JDU (Janata Dal United) counterparts L K Advani and George Fernandes, crisscrossing the State to canvass support for their party candidates. The campaigning was marred by violence as the proscribed CPI (Maoist) naxalites killed the LJP (Lok Janshakti Party) candidate for Imamganj and former MP Rajesh Kumar and his three supporters near Dumaria police station in Gaya district on January 21.

They also targeted the campaign vehicles of another LJP nominee for Atri Ranjit Singh, injuring five party activists on January 26. Singh, however, escaped unhurt.

RJD supremo Laloo Prasad and his Chief Minister wife Rabri Devi went stumping around in the constituencies in favour of the ruling party's candidates.

Amidst mounting attack of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) by raking up the issues of law and order and backwardness of Bihar, the delay in getting kidnapped students freed from their abductors posed a major headache for RJD in the State during the campaigning.

Successive kidnappings of students in Patna, Bhagalpur, Hajipur and Nalanda over a fortnight bolstered the Opposition, NDA and LJP, while making a determined bid to have political currency on the issues pertaining to deterioration of law and order and State Government's apathy towards development.

Vajpayee, while kicking off his campaign for NDA in Bihar, had in Bhagalpur on January 28 made an appeal for release of Kislay's a Delhi Public School student in Patna, who was kidnapped from Patel Nagar on way to school bus on January 19.

Taking exception to Vajpayee's appeal, the RJD president had asked, "Where was Vajpayee when innocent children were being butchered and burnt alive during riots in Gujarat?"

Laloo also tried to gain from the recent report of the U C Banerjee committee on the Godhra train blaze and urged for renewal of his party's rule for another five years "to accelerate the pace of development". Secularism was also the key plank for RJD and Congress, which are contesting the elections on their own.

Sonia Gandhi, during her campaign, stressed the need for more development and more work and promised that her party would do the needful for all-round growth of the State after formation of a secular Government after poll.

The RJD has put up its candidates in 58 out of the 64 Assembly seats going to poll in the first phase, sparing three each for the CPI (Communist Party of India) and CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) and a solitary Kahalgaon seat for the Congress, from where Speaker of the outgoing Assembly Sadanand Singh seeking a seventh term. Congress nominees are trying their luck in 21 Assembly seats.

The LJP of Ramvilas Pawan has fielded its candidates in 56 constituencies.

The JDU is contesting in 36 constituencies while the BJP has fielded its nominees in 27 seats under the seat-sharing accord. In Ghosi, the BJP and JDU have supported the candidature of independent MLA Jagdish Sharma.