Lok Sabha polls 2014: Turnouts range from 8.53% to 29% polling in five eastern states

KOLKATA/RANCHI/PATNA/IMPHAL/BHUBANESWAR: Turnout in polling for 29 Lok Sabha seats in five eastern states ranged from a high 29% in West Bengal to the lowest of 8.53% in Manipur in the first few hours, even as Maoists blew up railway lines and injured a CRPF man in Jharkhand, in the fifth phase of of the elections today.
In Odisha, polling was also being held in 77 Assembly seats, besides 11 parliamentary constituencies.

Election office sources said that the percentage of voting in West Bengal was 29, Odisha 15, Bihar 14, Jharkhand 12.74 and lowest of 8.53% in Manipur.

Odisha accounted for the highest number of 11 parliamentary seats, besides 77 Assembly seats.

Polling was being held for seven Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, six in Jharkhand, four in West Bengal and one in Manipur.

In Jharkhand, a CRPF man was injured in an encounter with Maoists near Tulbul village, CRPF (26th Battalion) Commandant Sanjay Kumar said.

Maoists also blew up railway lines in Bokaro district, which falls under Giridh Lok Sabha constituency, disrupting train services.

A pressure cooker bomb was recovered near a polling booth in Maoist-hit Saranda forest, an hour before polling began in Singhbhum (reserved) constituency.

A Presiding Officer Bamia Soren was arrested for influencing people to vote for Independent nominee Geeta Koda, the wife of sitting MP and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, Returning Officer of West Singhbhum, Abu Waqar Siddqui P said.

Among prominent candidates in this phase are RJD Chief Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti and her two uncles Ramkripal Yadav and Ranjan Yadav, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, former Home Secretary R K Singh and Bhojpuri actor Kunal Singh in Bihar among 117 candidates.

In Jharkhand, among 106 candidates, prominent ones were Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Karia Munda of BJP, Jayant Sinha, son of Jaswant Sinha, former Team India Manager Amitabh Chowdhury of JVM(P), former deputy Chief Minister, Suresh Mahato of Ajsu party and former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay of Congress.

In West Bengal, among the 47 candidates were GJM-backed BJP candidate S S Ahluwalia and Trinamool Congress nominee Baichung Bhutia, RSP sitting MP Manohar Tirkey and CPI(M)'s Mahendra Roy in Jalpaiguri.

In Odisha, the 98 candidates included Congress stalwart and union minister Srikant Jena and former union minister Arjun Sethi of the BJD and a host of MPs including Tathagat Satpathy, Baijayant Panda, Pinaki Mishra, Bhatruhari Mahtab.

Among the 747 candidates in the Assembly election were state ministers Maheshwar Mohanty, Pratap Keshari Deb, Badri Narayan Patra, Bijoyshree Routray and Damodar Rout.

Among the eight candidates contesting in Manipur, prominent ones were sitting Congress MP Th Meinya, former Manipur University Professor R K Ranjan of BJP, former Manipur Rifles commandant S Manaobi of Trinamool Congress, senior CPI leader M Nara and the lone woman candidate O Indira an Independent.

The Congress held the prestigious seat for 10 years