Over 95L voters to decide fate of 80 netas in state’s five LS seats today

Patna: Amid lower-than-expected voter turnout in first four phases of Lok Sabha elections in the state’s 19 constituencies that has left political parties worried, five more constituencies will go to polls in the fifth phase of seven-phase elections on Monday.Altogether 95,11,186 lakh voters will seal the fate of 80 candidates, including six women, in the five constituencies – Saran, Hajipur, Sitamarhi, Madhubani and Muzaffarpur – amid tight security.Voting will take place at 9,433 booths, including 8,219 in rural areas. There will be 1,932 booths in Sitamarhi, 1,939 in Madhubani, 1,869 in Muzaffarpur, 1,776 in Saran and 1,917 in Hajipur. The Election Commission has set up 33 all-women booths, 27 model booths and 30 booths for Divyangs in these five constituencies.Muzaffarpur has the highest number of 26 candidates in the fray, followed by Sitamarhi (14), Saran (14), Hajipur (14) and Madhubani (12).In the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), BJP has fielded its candidates in three seats in the fifth phase and JD (U) and LJP (RV) have shared one seat each. As far as opposition INDIA bloc is concerned, RJD candidates are in the fray in four seats and Congress is contesting one seat.Among the five constituencies going to polls in the fifth phase, Saran and Hajipur are cynosures of all eyes. While RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya is making electoral debut from Saran, once her father’s turf, Chirag Paswan will be out to stamp his family’s authority on Hajipur that was represented in Lok Sabha by his father Ram Vilas Paswan eight times and uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras once.In Saran, Acharya is up against BJP heavyweight and former Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy. While Acharya hopes to wrest back her father’s stronghold, Rudy, a pilot by profession, is hopeful of scoring a hat-trick in Saran. Even an ailing Lalu campaigned for his daughter in Saran and called upon the people to vote for her. In Hajipur, Chirag is pitted against RJD’s Shivchandra Ram. In Muzaffarpur, sitting MP Ajay Nishad is contesting on a Congress ticket this time. He quit the BJP after the party refused to give him a ticket for the third term. The BJP has fielded Raj Bhushan Choudhary who had contested on the ticket of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) from Muzaffarpur in 2009.In Sitamarhi, JD(U) dropped its sitting MP Sunil Kumar Pintoo and gave the party symbol to Devesh Chandra Thakur, chairman of the state legislative council, who is pitted against RJD’s Arjun Ray.In Madhubani, BJP has reposed faith on Ashok Kumar Yadav. The saffron party has been winning the seat since 2009. Ashok’s father Hukum Dev Narayan Yadav had won from the seat many times in the past. The RJD has fielded Mohd Ali Ashraf Fatmi, a former Union minister who had won adjoining Darbhanga seat many times.