The dust over campaigning for the 16th Lok Sabha settled finally in Bihar with the customary time allotted for it in six seats going to the ballots in the sixth and last phase on Monday came to a close this evening.
The six seats which will go to polling on May 12 are Valmikinagar, Paschim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Vaishali, Gopalganj(SC) and Siwan. In the fray are 90 candidates, including filmmaker Prakash Jha and former union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh whose fates would be decided by more than 90 lakh voters.
While Jha is trying his luck on a JD(U) ticket from Paschim Champaran, more popularly remembered as Bettiah, Raghubansh Prasad Singh, who won praise for piloting MGNREGA, will do so from his traditional Vaishali seat on RJD ticket.
Singh is opposed by muscleman politician Rama Singh of LJP and Vijay Kumar Sahni of JD(U). With Bihar being his major focus state, BJP prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi campaigned in Motihari, Gopalganj and Siwan in favour of the party's candidates.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed election rally at Bagha, while party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi addresed another at Gopalganj. This being the last phase of elections, many BJP stalwarts like Sushma Swaraj and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too pitched in and campaigned in the state.
RJD President Lalu Prasad and Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar criss-crossed the constituencies to solicit peoples support. Elaborate security measures have been put in place for the final phase of polls and a total 58,000 security personnel have been deployed.
Armed jawans would be posted at every polling location. Election Commission has reduced poll timings by two hours in five assembly segments on the day over perceived Maoist threat.
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