Bihar Election 3rd phase voting LIVE: Polling concludes for Bihar assembly elections, counting on November 10

Polling concludes for Bihar assembly elections; counting of votes on November 10

55.22% voter turnout recorded till 5pm in the third and last phase of Bihar assembly elections: Election Commission of India

A brother of RJD nominee Bittu Singh, who is in the poll fray from Damdaha Assembly constituency in Purnea district, was gunned down on Saturday by unidentified assailants, police said.

Deceased Beni Singh was moving from booth to booth in the constituency while polling was on in the third and final phase of Bihar Assembly elections during the day.

As he came out of a polling booth in Sarsi village, three to four assailants fired at him indiscriminately, killing him on the spot.

Beni's supporters took him to a nearby hospital but he was declared dead on arrival. Police sent the body for post-mortem and set up a team to nab the killers.

Officials in Purnea claimed that Bittu Singh has a criminal record and his younger brother too was involved in some criminal cases.

Following the crime, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha tweeted that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's 'Rakshas Raj' (demon rule) was visible in Bihar.

While the three-phase Bihar assembly elections are slated to come to a close on Saturday evening, an independent candidate in the poll fray from Benipatti segment in Madhubani district died of coronavirus at AIIMS.

Sanjay Jha died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where he was admitted for the last 10 days.

Jha, a former Janata Dal-United leader, rebelled against the party after denial of ticket from Benipatti.

Reports said a 45-year-old woman was mowed down by a speeding car in Supaul district on Saturday morning while she was returning after casting her vote. The accident occurred in area in the jurisdiction of Lalit Gram police post on National Highway-57.

Meanwhile, Congress Rajya Sabha member and AICC incharge of Bihar affairs, Shaktisinh Gohil tested positive for coronavirus after an RT-PCR test. Gohil tweeted on Saturday: "I will fight coronavirus too with your blessings. Nothing to worry about."

A polling station in Begusarai wears a deserted look as locals have decided to boycott elections alleging lack of development in the area; people stage demonstration against the govt.

Locals make a temporary bridge in Muzaffarpur to help voters reach a polling station. "There was no bridge to cross the water stream. We constructed this bridge for easy movement of people. We wanted maximum people to cast their vote,” says a local.

Even as polling was underway on Saturday in 78 Assembly constituencies in 15 districts of Bihar, a Presiding Officer posted at a polling centre in Muzaffarpur district's Katra Block died due to heart attack.

"Presiding Officer Kedar Rai, deployed at voting centre number 190 in Katra, died of a heart attack," an official said.

He was employed with the state Irrigation Department. The body has been sent for a post-mortem.

Voting for 243 Assembly seats was slated to be held in three phases. Polling in 71 seats in the first phase was held on October 28 and 94 seats on November 3 in the second phase. Polling in the third and final phase is going on on Saturday. Counting of the votes will be taken up on November 10.

Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) chief Sharad Yadav's daughter Subhashini Raj Rao casts her vote at a polling booth in Madhepura in the third & final phase of Bihar Elections.

She is the Congress candidate from Bihariganj.

People stand in queues outside a polling station in Sitamarhi's Riga as electronic voting machine (EVM) at the booth is not functioning currently.

Rajya Sabha MP Ahmad Ashfaque Karim casts his vote at a polling station in Katihar. He says, "I appeal to people of the State to exercise their right to vote so that deserving candidates are elected."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday appealed to voters for the last phase of polls in Bihar to cast their votes in maximum numbers and set a new record.

Polling is underway in 78 assembly segments of Bihar in the third and final phase of state elections on Saturday in which 2.35 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 1,204 candidates.

Casting of votes began at 7 am at all 33,782 polling stations where as many EVM sets and VVPAT machines have been installed and paramilitary forces deployed to maintain order, officials said.

Voting is simultaneously taking place for the Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat in West Champaran district where a by-election has been necessitated by the death of the sitting JD(U) MP Baidyanath Mahto.

Of the total 2.35 voters in the 78 assembly segments, spread across 15 districts of north Bihar, 1.23 are men, 1.12 crore are women while 894 are in the third gender category, according to statistics provided by the Election Commission.

In addition, re-poll is being held at two polling stations of Hisua assembly segment in Nalanda district where votes were cast in the second phase on November 3, the Election commission said.

It said the re-poll has been necessitated by the EVMS getting damaged in a road accident.

Among the candidates in the fray, 37 belong to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), 35 to the BJP, while five are contesting on tickets of junior NDA ally Vikassheel Insaan Party and one from the Hindustani Awam Morcha.

The candidates of the JD(U)-BJP include the assembly Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.

The main opposition RJD is fighting 46 seats in the final phase, while its ally Congress is in the fray in 25. Ultra-Left outfit CPI(ML), which has joined the RJD-led Grand Alliance along with CPI and CPI(M), is contesting five seats in the final phase.

A notable Congress candidate in this phase is Subhashini Yadav (30), veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav's daughter who is making her debut from Bihariganj which falls under Madhepura Lok Sabha seat, represented by her father a number of times.

Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party is in the fray on 42 seats, including Govindganj, which it holds and where it is pitted against the BJP, which it claims to be supporting while being opposed to the JD(U).

The final phase of elections is also noteworthy because of the role the Owaisi factor might play.

Headed by fiery Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, the AIMIM had registered a stunning victory in Kishanganj last year, defeating the Congress candidate whose son's election to Lok Sabha had necessitated the by-poll.

The AIMIM is in the fray in more than a dozen seats, mostly in the Kosi-Seemanchal region which is densely populated and has a high percentage of Muslim residents.

The NDA hopes that the party's ability to cut into Muslim votes will weaken the RJD and help the JD(U)-BJP combine.

Voting for the first phase was held on October 28 and for the second phase on November 3. Results will be out on November 10.