The presiding officer of booth number 66 at Sripur village and 11 others were arrested on Wednesday on charges of rigging and bogus voting in the Madhepura constituency.
Sporadic exchange of fire, booth-grabbing, violence, and intimidation of voters were also reported from several areas in the constituency, from where RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav and Union minister Sharad Yadav of the JD(U) faced each other in a tense contest.
Sharad Yadav had to run for safety when he was chased by a group of RJD men in Rampur village.
The polling personnel were arrested after election observer K.J. Alphonse found that 397 votes had been cast though only 226 voters were registered at the booth.
Five persons were reportedly injured in a gunfight outside a polling booth at Vailar in the Madhepura assembly segment, where voters had turned out in large numbers to exercise their franchise.
Voters at a booth in Kohapati, also in the Madhepura assembly segment, chased away Minister of State for Industries Rajendra Prasad Yadav when he tried to intimidate them.
Another minister, Ravindra Charan Yadav, was reportedly asked to leave a booth at Kishanganj by paramilitary forces for intimidating voters. Security personnel reportedly smashed the beacon light on his car, since he was not supposed to use it on polling day. The district administration, however, did not confirm this.
Reports of the involvement of Subhash Yadav, RJD MLC and brother of Chief Minister Rabri Devi, in kidnapping two persons from booth number 89 in Kishanganj, turned out to be false.
{{/usCountry}}Reports of the involvement of Subhash Yadav, RJD MLC and brother of Chief Minister Rabri Devi, in kidnapping two persons from booth number 89 in Kishanganj, turned out to be false.
{{/usCountry}}Heavy deployment of forces and proactive election observers prevented a repeat of Chapra. The administration had declared 235 booths hypersensitive.