Patna: Voting began for the eight Lok Sabha seats in Bihar amid tight security arrangements this morning.
Of the 40 constituencies, polling in 24 seats has already been conducted in the previous phases and the remaining eight seats will go to polls in the last phase on June 1.
A total of 1.5 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise today from Valmiki Nagar, West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Vaishali, Gopalganj, Siwan and Maharajganj. Of which, Gopalganj has the highest number of 20.24 voters and the lowest of 17.56 lakh voters are in West Champaran. A total of 86 candidates are in the fray.
This election, the main fight is between BJP, JD(U), LJP (Ram Vilas), RLM, HAM and the alliance of RJD, Congress, CPI, CPI(M), VIP. In this phase, JD(U) has fielded candidates in four seats including Sheohar that was won by BJP last time.
Key candidates:
- In Sheohar, the main fight is between JD(U)'s Lovely Anand, who enjoys popularity among upper caste Rajputs and RJD's Ritu Jaiswal. This seat was won by BJP's Rama Devi in 2019.
- In Valmiki Nagar, JD(U)'s Onil Kumar is against RJD's Deepak Yadav. JD(U)'s Baidyanath Prasad Mahto had won this seat last time.
- In West Champaran, sitting BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal is contesting against Congress's former MLA Madan Mohan Tiwari. Jaiswal had won this seat by securing 60 percent votes five years back.
- East Champaran, which is considered to be a BJP stronghold has three-time MP Radha Mohan Singh from saffron party against VIP's Rajesh Kushwaha. In 2019, Singh had won this seat by a margin of 2.94 lakh votes.
- In Maharajganj, sitting BJP MP Janardhan Singh Sigriwal is against Congress' Akash Prasad Singh, whose father is an MP and heading the state unit.
- In Siwan, it is a triangular fight between JD(U), RJD and an independent candidate Hina Shahab, whose husband, late Mohd Shahabuddin had won here many times. Denying ticket to sitting MP Kavita Singh, JD(U) has fielded Vijaylakshmi Kushwaha while RJD has fielded former Assembly Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary.
- In Gopalganj, sitting JD(U) MP Alok Kumar Suman is against Prem Nath Chanchal of VIP and AIMIM's Dinanath Manjhi.
- In Vaishali, sitting LJP MP Veena Devi is taking on RJD's Vijay Kumar Shukla.
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