Two Union Ministers in fray as 5 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar go to polls today

Patna: Voting for five Lok Sabha seats in Bihar to decide the fate of 55 candidates, including two Union ministers, began on Monday morning, amid tight security.

Polling commenced at 7 am in Begusarai, Ujiarpur, Samastipur, Munger and Darbhanga and will continue till 6 pm, a senior official said.

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

Union Minister Giriraj Singh is seeking re-election from Begusarai where his primary opponent is CPI's Awadhesh Rai. Singh had defeated former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the same seat.

In Ujiarpur, which has the lowest number of voters at 17.48 lakh but hosts the maximum of 13 candidates, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai aims 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.