Tuesday, October 18 2005 10:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Indian Air Force choppers patrolled the skies as the first-phase of polling began today morning (Oct 18, 2005) in 57 of 243 assembly constituencies in Bihar.

Assembly elections are being held in Bihar, which has been under Presidents Rule since March seven, for the second time this year.

An electorate of over 1.23 crore are eligible to exercise their franchise to choose their representatives from among 541 aspirants. EVMs are being used for the polling.

Over 90,000 security and police personnel have been deployed in 57 assembly constituencies straddling 12 Naxalite-hit districts in 13,338 polling stations, Chief Secretary G S Kang said.

Of the security personnel, 43,000 are from the central paramilitary forces.

Director General of Police Ashish Ranjan Sinha told sources that security personnel were armed with shoot orders to tackle booth-grabbers if the need arose.

The Election Commission has instructed the state authorities not to take up polling in booths where security has not been provided, Chief Electoral Officer N K Sinha said.

Voters would be photographed while casting votes to detect bogus voters against whom stringent action would be taken.

He said that 70 per cent of the polling stations would be covered by around 43,000 central para-military forces and the rest by the BMP, DAP and home guards.

In a special drive launched by the state police on the instruction of the commission over the past three months, over 1.4 lakh potential troublemakers, including 5000 hardened criminals have been arrested.

The police also seized over 3000 firearms and unearthed over 100 illegal gun factories, he said.

The 12 districts where polling is being held are Patna, Bhojpur, Buxar, Kaimur, Rohtas, Gaya, Jehanabad, Arwal, Aurangabad, Nawada, Banka and Jamui.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has fielded its nominees in 49 constituencies, its ally Congress in seven and Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) (one).

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (JD) United (U) are contesting in 24 and 33 seats respectively.

Prominent contenders whose fates would be decided in the first phase include ministers in the erstwhile Rarbi Devi Government.

They are Shyam Rajak (Phulwarisharif), Jagdanand Singh (Ramgarh), Mahabali Singh (Chainpur), Illiyas Hussain (Dehri), Raghvendra Pratap Singh (Barahra), Shivanand Tiwari (Shahpur) and Shakeel Ahmed Khan (Gurua).

Though earlier polling was scheduled to be held in 61constituencies in the first phase, it was postponed in Gaya (Town), Gaya (Mufassil), Bodh Gaya and Belaganj to October 21 to ensure effective deployment of police in Gaya district.

Elections to the Bihar assembly are being held in four phases.

Polling for the second phase covering 69 assemblies will be held on October 26, while 72 constituencies would be covered in the third phase on November 13.

The last phase of polling, covering 41 seats will be on November 19. Counting of votes would be taken up on November 22.