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7 killed in second phase of Bihar election

Soroor Ahmed in Patna

At least seven persons were killed and 30 injured in separate incidents of violence as about 60 per cent of the electorate in 108 constituencies voted in the second phase of polling for the Bihar Legislative Assembly today. Twenty persons, including 12 policemen, had been killed in the first phase on February 12.

Two persons were killed in Islampur, one in Rajgir, one in Chandi in Nalanda district, one in Siwan and two more in Raghopur, from where Rashtriya Janata Dal president and former chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav is contesting the election.

According to a report, a Bharatiya Janata Party supporter was killed in a bomb attack on party candidate Wasi Ahmed in Siwan. Ahmed escaped unhurt.

Earlier reports had attributed the death of one person in the area to a clash between supporters of the Communist Party of India, Marxist-Leninist Liberation, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, but that turned out to be wrong.

While Bihar minister Awadh Bihari Chaudhary is the RJD candidate in Siwan, the CPI-ML-Liberation fielded Kausalya Devi, mother of late student leader Chandrashekar. The activist from Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University was gunned down in Siwan on March 31, 1997, allegedly by henchmen of the RJD Member of Parliament Mohammad Shahabuddin. Wasi Ahmed was till recently a follower of Shahabuddin, whose writ runs large in Siwan.

In Raghopur, seven rifles were snatched from policemen by criminals on horseback in two separate incidents. One person was reportedly killed in one of the incidents, at booth 224 in Paharpur village.

Reports of clashes between supporters of the RJD and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance also came in from Munger and Samastipur districts. But no loss of life was reported.

About two dozen notorious gangsters were in the fray today. While most belonged to the NDA, there were some independents as well. But polling was far more peaceful in the constituencies where these candidates were contesting, mainly because security forces took additional precautions there. In Mokama, for instance, where independent candidate Suraj Bhan took on Bihar minister Dilip Singh, all polling booths were declared sensitive and the Patna divisional commissioner himself camped there. Not a single booth was left without armed central paramilitary forces or Bihar Mounted Police personnel.

Suraj Bhan is lodged in Beur Central Jail, Patna, and has more than two dozen cases pending against him. Though the Samata Party had put up its candidate, Dilip Kumar Patel, in Mokama, the party openly supported Suraj Bhan. Curiously, both the RJD candidate and Suraj Bhan belong to the same caste, Bhumihar.

Another prominent independent in the fray was Dhummal Singh, the candidate in Baniapur, Chapra. He had been an absconder for 22 years and re-entered the state only recently.

Unlike in some parts of central and south Bihar, where leftist extremists call the shots, north Bihar has always remained a happy hunting ground for criminal dons, the tal (low-lying) areas adjoining the Ganga and the diaras (riverine islands) helping their growth. The proximity to the international border with Nepal also helps.

Among those whose fates were sealed in ballot boxes in the 108 seats today are RJD spokesman Shivanand Tiwary, state Congress president Sadanand Singh and more than a dozen ministers in the Rabri Devi government.

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