Record 69% Turnout Caps Bihar’s High-stakes Polls

Bihar on Tuesday witnessed a record-breaking turnout of nearly 69 per cent in the second and final phase of polling, wrapping up a nearly month-long exercise that saw the ruling NDA defend its "sushasan" pitch against the opposition's onslaught, promising "change".

- Press Trust Of India

The results, which will be declared on November 14, will decide whether Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president and the longest serving Chief Minister, secures yet another tenure or his former deputy Tejashwi Yadav, who has likened the 20-year-old regime to a "rickety old car" (khataara), takes the wheel.

Briefing reporters, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod Singh Gunjiyal said the state recorded 68.79 per cent voter turnout, provisionally, in the second and final phase of the assembly polls.

In both phases, the state registered a voter turnout of 66.90 per cent, provisionally, which is 9.6 percentage points more than the last assembly polls, the CEO added.

In the 2020 assembly polls, the state recorded a voter turnout of 57.29 per cent.