Election Commission reduces voting time in Naxal-hit aread of Bihar

PATNA: Fearing threat from Maoists during the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in Bihar tomorrow, Election Commission has decided to cut polling period by two hours in Naxal-hit areas of Ara and Jehanabad Lok Sabha constituencies.

The voting time in Agiyaon and Terari Assembly segments in Ara, and Jehanabad and Makhdumpur in Jehanabad will now be from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Additional Chief Electoral Officer R Lakshmanan told reporters here. The DM and SP of Ara and Jehanabad had sent proposals to the EC to curtail the polling period in the two Maoist-hit areas.

"The EC today approved them. We are publicising the changed timings among the voters there," Lakshmanan said. Former Union Home Secretary R K Singh is in fray in Ara on BJP ticket.

With the latest change in polling schedule, 11 Assembly constituencies figuring in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will witness curtailed timing for voting. In rest of the places electors would exercise their franchise from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

The first phase of voting in the state on April 10 in six seats in Maoist-affected areas had witnessed killing of two CRPF personnel in a blast and later an ambush in Munger. Can bombs, IED and explosives were found in Gaya and Aurangabad districts the same day when Maoists gave a poll boycott call.

Seven Lok Sabha seats - Patna Sahib, Patliputra, Nalanda, Jehanabad, Munger, Ara and Buxar - are going to polls in the second phase in the state tomorrow. Over 1.22 crore electors will decide the fate of 117 candidates in these seats. Meanwhile, the EC dispatched polling and security personnel along with EVMs to 11,846 polling stations for tomorrow's poll.