Apparently the figure of 51.9 per cent may not be too bad. But there is another aspect too. The voting pcrcentage, according to initial reports, was much higher in small towns and rural pockcts of Barh, Bakhtiyarpur, Maner, Fatuha and even Danapur, where bomb blasts did disrupt the voting at one or two places, than the four seats of urban Patna, for example, Patna Saheb, Kumhrar, Bankipur and Digha. Thus it was the good turnout in the rural pockets, which helped the figure reach 51 per cent.

Similarly Bhagalpur, Banka and Munger too witnessed slightly less turnout than the first three phases. But inclement weather in east Bihar, espcially in Banka, where it rained in the morning, is also responsible for the fall in percentage. The percentage was less than 50 in Jamui and Lakhisarai as some parts of these two districts are hit by Maoists’ violence.

 Unlike other parts of north Bihar, where the Janata Dal (United) was strong and taking on the RJD-LJP alliance in most of these urban centres it is the BJP versus others. Urban voter turnout, especially in Patna, had often been low. Even this time the election failed to generate much enthusiasim. This notwithstanding the fact that the largest number of admirers of the Nitish Kumar government live in the state capital. Efforts by various groups and even media to make the people conscious about their democratic right to exercise their adult franchise failed.

Something somewhere seems to be seriously wrong. Either the urban people just want to pay lip service to democracy or they are not satisfied with the candidates though they have no problem with the NDA as a whole. The conflict within the NDA, especially in Digha, forced many of them to remain at home. Anyway it is time to ponder over it.

However, the figure is about 12 per cent better than the November 2005 assembly election. But one thing should also be kept in mind. In November 2005 the turnout was extremely low because people seem to have become fed with voting. Only eight months before they voted for the same assembly and they had to vote again. This time the situation was not so.

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DEMOCRACY Vs REALITY in BIHAR:
The great urban populace of Bihar has finally come to terms with the menace of democratic set ups and idiotic elections here.The enlightened Biharis have thankfully understood that
democracy is certainly the worst form of governance in Bihar. Democracy ranks among the gravest threats to individual rights and individual liberty in the history of Bihar. Democracy is, in certain respects, even worse than absolute monarchy here. Ignorant and arrogant modern day "champions of democracy" need to get a clue. Assuming they are sincere when they sound off about valuing the sovereign individual above the omnipotent state, then the people they most need to educate about democracy are the leaders themselves.
Founded by the Americans and exported like hazardous burgers , democracy and electoral processes have done much harm to the people of Bihar in the form of empowerment of the political characters like the ones whose posters and banners you grow up seeing.The politics and leadership of this state hums around a bunch of intolerable goons who aim at plundering the tax payers money for the betterment of their own family members who otherwise would be running khatals or gangs in some remote areas of Bihar.
The more people avoid electioneering and phenomenon like this the faster they run out of this fake quagmire called sarkar raj.Why should they enthrone people like Lalu, Nitish,Modi, paswan or Qaiser over the common man who is only going to be brutally marginalized by them once they came to power.
ARSHAD MOHSIN