The polling for the 68 wards of the Bihar urban local body is underway amid tight security and strict monitoring. The voting began at 7 in the morning and will conclude at 5 PM.
Voting is being done across 17 municipal corporations including Patna, 2 Municipal Councils, and 49 Nagar Panchayats in a total of 68 cities of 23 districts of Bihar.
The fate of 11,127 candidates for Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Chief Councillor, Ward Councilor, and 1665 other posts will be sealed in EVMs on Wednesday. The counting of votes for the second phase of the municipal elections will be held on Friday, December 30 and the results will be released on the same day.
As many as 61,94,826 electors (Male 32,60,259 and Female 29,34,317) are eligible to exercise their franchise in 1,529 wards across 23 districts, including Patna, Gaya, Ara, Purnia, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur, PTI reported citing a state election commission official.
The SEC has made elaborate arrangements for polling, including the deployment of security personnel in 7,088 polling booths and 286 mobile polling centres in 23 districts. Webcasting is being done from all the polling stations, it added.
7088 booths have been made for the election. This is the first time when the voters in the state will be directly electing the chief councilor and deputy chief councilor.
The first phase of the polls was held on 18th December for 156 municipal corporation wards. The results were declared on December 20.
The municipal polls were earlier scheduled to be held on October 10 and 20. However, it got delayed after the Patna High Court, in its order, said that the reservations of extremely backward castes and (EBC)/ Other Backward Class (OBC) in the ensuing urban local bodies (ULB) polls in Bihar are "illegal".
(With PTI Inputs)