Patna: Voter turnout in the 14 assembly constituencies of Patna district rose sharply from 11.22% at 9am to 23.44% by 11am on Thursday, as polling for the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections gathered momentum.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar cast his vote at booth number 287, the model polling station at Manju Sinha Girls High School in Bakhtiyarpur, while Patna Sahib MP Ravi Shankar Prasad exercised his franchise at Patna Women’s College.
At booth number 238 in Patna Sahib, senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav engaged in a brief argument with polling staff after they insisted on seeing his voter ID card despite him presenting his Assembly Speaker’s identification. Yadav later produced his voter ID card and cast his ballot without further incident.
Meanwhile, reports of poll boycotts surfaced from multiple areas. Residents of Nizampur village in the Fatuha Assembly constituency boycotted polling at booths 165 and 166, with no votes recorded until around 10am. Similarly, voters in the Mahadalit Tola area of Maner abstained from voting at booth 255.
According to district election officials, 5,677 polling centres have been set up across Patna, including 541 all-women polling stations, 49 model booths, 14 for persons with disabilities, and 3 youth polling stations. Of these, 2,099 have been identified as critical.
Patna district has a total electorate of 4,830,135, comprising 2,547,931 men, 2,282,047 women, and 157 third-gender voters. To ensure smooth polling, authorities have deployed 565 sector magistrates, 84 zonal magistrates, and 14 super-zonal magistrates across constituencies.
A total of 149 candidates are contesting across the district’s 14 assembly seats, which include high-profile constituencies such as Bakhtiyarpur, Danapur, Digha, Bankipur, Phulwari, and Patna Sahib.
With polling continuing until 6pm, the Election Commission has urged voters to turn out in large numbers while maintaining decorum and patience at crowded booths.
