Enthusiastic voters brushed aside their Covid-19 fears to rush to polling booths and cast their votes during the first phase of polling in Bihar today which passed off peacefully barring stray incidents of clashes.
An impressive 53.46 percent voters joined the polling which was held on 71 Assembly seats spread across 16 districts, mostly identified as Maoist-hit as per police records.
Bihar is the first state to go to polls at the time of Covid-19 pandemic.
There were wide apprehensions about a sharp fall in polling percentage this time with the election being conducted during the Corona pandemic and the virus claiming more than a thousand lives in the past six months.
Initial trends seemed to suggest fear among the masses as the polling percentage remained quite low. In the first two hours, just 6.74 percent voters cast their votes till 9 in the morning. However, the poll percentage improved significantly as the day passed.
By 11 am, the poll percentage moved to 18.45 and touched 33.10 percent by 1 PM. It jumped to 46.29 by 3 pm and 51.91 by 5 pm, indicating the voters’ enthusiasm about joining the democratic process—a major tool for the voters to elect the government of their choice.
The voting percentage can be indeed termed as significant given all odds, such as Covid panic, massive reverse migration in the state and finally huge job losses due to Corona-induced lockdown for some three months leaving lakhs of families economically ruined. In the last 2015 assembly polls, 56.9 percent polling had been recorded, followed by 52.7 percent in 2010, 45.9 percent in October 2005 and 62.6 percent in the year 2000.
Sadly,Covid-19 safety norms went for a toss at several polling booths as both the voters and polling personnel appeared at the polling booths without facemasks, paying scant regard to the Election Commission’s order for maintaining strict guidelines.
At many places, the voters ignored social distancing too and came to the booths without facemasks to cast their votes. At a polling booth in Paliganj block of Patna district, the voters stood too close to each other and were found using no masks.
Many voters lost their cool when asked as to why they were ignoring the Covid safety standards. “Ralliyon me neta log bina masks ke aa raha hai aur hamare liye corona hai.Corona khali janata ke liye hai(Leaders are attending rallies without masks and we are being advised to use them. Is Corona only for the common men)?” asked a voter.
Even more shocking scenes were reported from various booths in Gaya and Rohtas districts where used gloves by the voters were found strewn all over the polling booths.
These gloves were made available to the voters by the Election Commission to protect them from the Covid-19 virus but no arrangements were made to dump them in garbage bins as they were found scattered all over, posing massive health risks.
Yet another interesting thing about the polling was that quite a large number of Covid-19 infected people reached the polling booths to cast their votes during the last hour of polling.
According to a report, a total of 212 Corona patients cast their votes in five polling booths of Patna district alone. Transgender candidates too showed enthusiasm to join the poll process and came out clapping happily after casting their votes.