Patna, November 6: The first phase of the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 concluded peacefully on Thursday. Voting took place in 121 out of 243 seats across state. Voting began at 7 am in most areas and continued till 6 pm, while in some sensitive areas, voting ended at 5 pm.
According to information received from a total of 41943 booths, 64.66 percent voting has taken place till 6 pm. This year’s voter turnout is the highest in any election since independence in 1952. In 2020, around 62.57 percent voting took place.
Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer Vinod Singh Gunjyal said in a press conference late Thursday evening that the first phase of voting was successfully completed today. 45,341 booths were set up in which voting took place at 41,943 booths across the state and an average of 64.66 percent voting was recorded.
He told that the total number of voters in the first phase of voting was 3.75 crore. In which 1.98 crore were male voters and 1.76 crore were female voters. He told that the participation of women voters was very good in this election.
Gunjyal told that there were two lakh voters above 85 years of age. There were 1314 candidates in the first phase. In which 1192 were male candidates and 122 were female candidates. Gunjyal said, “By the end of voting, 143 complaints were received. All were resolved in a timely manner. Additionally, all complaints received directly over the phone were also resolved in a timely manner. There were also reports of boycotts at some polling stations, including polling station number 56 in the Brahmapur Assembly constituency of Buxar district, polling stations number 165 and 166 in the Fatuha Assembly constituency, and polling stations number 1, 2, and 5 in Suryagarha near Lakhisarai. No untoward incidents were reported in the first phase of voting that concluded today. Voting proceeded peacefully and smoothly.”
The Chief Electoral Officer stated that seizures totaling โน19.6 million (16 million rupees) in cash, โน13.1 million (18 million rupees) in liquor, and โน117 million (11.57 million rupees) in drugs were seized on election day.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar congratulated voters for the historic turnout in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections, the highest since 1951. He expressed his gratitude to voters for their complete faith in the Election Commission of India and for voting in such large numbers with such enthusiasm and zeal. He also thanked the entire election machinery for working with complete transparency and dedication.
The political future of 18 ministers, including two Deputy Chief Ministers, was also sealed in the EVMs in the first phase. Prominent candidates include Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav, Samrat Chaudhary, Vijay Kumar Sinha and Anant Singh, Maithili Thakur, Sanjay Sarawagi, Khesari Lal Yadav, Vijay Chaudhary, Madan Sahni, and Anand Mishra.