Saturday, October 29 2005 19:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Polling passed off peacefully in seven 'super-sensitive' Assembly constituencies of Bihar where polls were postponed for security reasons on October 26, with an estimated 40-45 per cent voter turnout, official sources said.

''No violence was reported from anywhere during today's exercise,'' state Home Secretary H C Sirohi said.

Bihar's Additional Chief Electoral Officer Deepak Prasad said that roughly 40-45 per cent of the over 15.72 lakh electorate cast their votes.

Samastipur, Dalsinghsarai, Sarairanjan, Surajgarha, Kharagpur, Kadwa and Barsoi constituencies were originally to go to polls on October 26 in the second of the four-phase

Assembly elections, but the Election Commission rescheduled the polls apprehending disturbance in order to ensure enhanced deployment of central para-military forces.

Peaceful repolling was also held at 136 booths in Jamui, Pirpainti, Kahalgaon and Sultanganj constituencies, necessitated by complaints of electoral malpractices and faults in electronic voting machines.

Sirohi said a patrolling magistrate Ramesh Kumar Das was arrested from a hotel on the charge of enjoying the hospitality of the candidate of a particular party in violation of the model code of conduct.

The officer in-charge of Dalsinghsarai police station, Avinash Kumar Singh, was transferred on the instruction of the Election Commission just before polling began following a complaint that he was working to benefit a particular candidate.