Patna: Voting for the second phase of the Bihar Panchayat elections is underway from 7 am. Voters can exercise their franchise till 5 pm. Polling is being held in 48 blocks spread over 34 districts in the second phase. The State Election Commission has made strict security arrangements. The data of voters has been uploaded for biometric verification.

A long queue of voters has been seen at the polling booths since morning. In the Buxar district, polling is seen to be heavy on the occasion of Jiutia Parv. Women say they will worship Jiutia after voting. Polling was disrupted at several places due to a deficiency in EVM. So, the biometric system in Rajpur failed. In the second phase, voting for panchayat elections began at 7 am on Wednesday in 4 blocks of Katihar district amid security arrangements. It may be recalled that this time the Zilla Parishad, mukhiya, panchayat Samiti and ward member candidates are being elected from EVM and panch and sarpanch are being elected through ballot papers.

Voters queued up at their respective polling stations since morning. 1,60,423 voters will exercise their franchise at 297 polling stations in Kursela, Katihar, Hasanganj and Dandkhora blocks. There are 80,564 males 79,952 women and seven other voters.

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