45.23 per cent per cent polling recorded in five LS seats in Bihar till 3 pm

DARBHANGA: Around 45.23 per cent of over 95 lakh voters in five Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar have exercised their franchise till 3 pm on Monday, officials said.

Voting for the five Lok Sabha seats in Bihar to decide the fate of 55 candidates began at 7 am in Begusarai, Ujiarpur, Samastipur, Munger and Darbhanga and will continue till 6 pm, a senior official said.

Over 47.61 per cent of voters have exercised their franchise in Darbhanga, 47.24 per cent in Samastipur, 46 per cent Ujiarpur, 43.55 per cent in Munger and 42.57 per cent in Begusarai till 3 pm.

Approximately 95.85 lakh electors are eligible to exercise their franchise across 5,398 polling stations, the official said.

Union Minister Giriraj Singh is seeking re-election from Begusarai where his primary opponent is CPI's Awadhesh Rai.

In Ujiarpur, which has the lowest number of voters at 17.48 lakh but hosts the maximum number of 13 candidates, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai is seeking re-election for a third consecutive term. His principal rival is Alok Mehta, a senior RJD leader and former state minister.

Samastipur, formerly known as Rosera, presents a battleground for two debutants - Congress' Sunny Hazari and Shambhavi Choudhary of LJP (Ram Vilas) - both offspring of senior JD(U) leaders and ministers in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.

Sunny is the son of Maheshwar Hazari who had won the seat on a JD(U) ticket in 2009, while Shambhavi is the daughter of Ashok Choudhary, a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.