Patna, May 20 : The voters were seen in long queues at booths in Bihar's Madhubani, Sitamarhi and Hajipur Lok Sabha constituencies in the fifth phase of polling on Monday.

The civil and police administrations are on the toes in these three Lok Sabha constituencies to conduct peaceful polling.

In Madhubani, a total of 26 candidates are in the fray and 19,34,235 voters will decide their fate. Among them, 10,13,971 are male and 9,20,173 are female voters. The number of third-gender voters is 91.

Like most seats in Bihar, there is a direct contest between NDA and the grand alliance in the Madhubani Lok Sabha seat as well. BJP has fielded sitting MP Ashok Kumar Yadav again against RJD's Md Ali Ashraf Fatmi. Just before the elections, Fatmi left JD-U and joined RJD.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP's Ashok Yadav won with the highest margin of more than 4,54,000 votes in Bihar. His father and BJP leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav also has the record of winning the election from Madhubani for the maximum 5 times.

In Sitamarhi, a close contest is expected between the NDA and the grand alliance. The district administration has made full preparations for the voting. Police forces have been deployed along with magistrates at every booth.

Sitamarhi Lok Sabha constituency comprises six assembly seats. BJP bagged Sitamarhi, Bathnaha and Parihar, and JD-U in Sursand and Runnisaidpur while RJD won only the Bajpatti assembly seat in the 2020 election.

NDA has fielded Bihar Legislative Council Chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur in Sitamarhi. He is contesting on the JD-U ticket while RJD has given the ticket to Arjun Roy. Devesh Chandra Thakur has been a member of the Bihar Legislative Council for 22 years.

The party has fielded Devesh Chandra Thakur this time, denying the ticket to Sunil Kumar Pintu.

Sitamarhi Lok Sabha constituency has been considered a stronghold of NDA. INDIA bloc candidate Arjun Roy won from Sitamarhi Lok Sabha constituency as an NDA candidate in 2009 but he lost in 2014 and 2019 after contesting as a grand alliance candidate.

In Hajipur, the voters are enthusiastic to exercise their voting rights. Long queues of people were seen at the booths since morning.

A total of 1,917 polling stations have been set up in the constituency. At the same time, elaborate security arrangements have been put in place at all the booths to ensure peaceful and fair voting.

The Election Commission has deployed 58 companies of special security forces. The administration has issued instructions to take the strictest steps to prevent any disturbance during voting.

Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency has six assembly seats including Hajipur, Mahanar, Raghopur, Rajapakar, Lalganj and Mahua. There are 19,49,119 voters in Hajipur of which 10,22,270 are male and 9,26,849 are female voters.

Hajipur seat can also be called the traditional seat of Ram Vilas Paswan's family. This is because Ram Vilas Paswan won from here in 1977, 1980, 1989, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014, while in 2019 his younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras won by defeating the grand alliance candidate. However, apart from the Congress wave in 1984, Ram Vilas Paswan could not maintain his dominance in 1991 and 2009. This time, the late Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag Paswan is contesting from the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat against RJD's Shiv Chandra Ram.

/IANS