Over 7.3 per cent of 75 lakh voters in four Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar exercised their franchise till 9 am on Friday, officials said.
Polling began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm, a senior official at the state Chief Electoral Office (Bihar) said, according to PTI.
Over 75 lakh voters will decide the fate of 38 candidates in these four seats.
A break-up of votes in the region by 9 am showed over 9.30 per cent of voters exercising their franchise in Gaya Lok Sabha constituency, 9.12 per cent in Jamui, 6.01 in Aurangabad and 6.15 per cent in Nawada in the first two hours of voting.
Former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, who is contesting from Gaya as an NDA nominee, told reporters in the morning that "Voters are following what our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has said 'pahle matdan, phir jalpan' (First vote, then have breakfast)".
Security arrangements had been tightened at Nawada and Aurangabad, besides reserved seats of Gaya and Jamui, where a majority of nearly 5,000 polling booths have been marked as "sensitive", given these districts' long history of naxal violence.
Of the four seats, Nawada has the highest number of 20.06 lakh voters, where altogether eight candidates are in the fray though the contest is primarily between Vivek Thakur, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP seeking entry into the Lok Sabha, and RJD's Shravan Kushwaha.
Gaya has 18.18 voters, but the highest number of 14 candidates. Here, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is just a few months shy of turning 80, is making yet another bid to enter Parliament.
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