Indian Air Force helicopters will patrol the skies as over 60,000 men and officers of Central Para-Military Forces and state police will stand guard for the second phase of assembly polls in 62 constituencies on Wednesday.
Additional Director General of police, Abhayanand, told PTI on Tuesday that four Indian Air Force choppers will maintain aerial surveilance as 600 companies of CPMF, Bihar Military Police, district armed police and Homeguards would do duty in 62 constituencies.
These are spread over Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Munger, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Begusarai, Katihar, Purnia, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur districts. He said all the polling stations would get security cover.
According to State Election Office sources, around 1.3 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise at 13,999 polling stations to choose their representatives from among 492 contestants.
State's Chief Electoral Officer N K Sinha said polling will not not be taken up in booths where security was not provided.
Director General of Police Ashish Ranjan Sinha said security personnel were armed with powers to shoot booth grabbers if the need arose.
"After peaceful polls in the first phase, we are reasonably sure this phase will also be the same," he said.
Stakes for the Rashtriya Janata Dal are quite high in the second phase, too, as the party had won a large number of seats in the February elections.
Prominent among those whose fate would be decided in the second phase include former chief minister Rabri Devi and former state assembly speaker and state Congress president Sadanand Singh.
Earlier polling was also scheduled to be held on October 26 in Suryagarha, Kharagpur, Sarairanjan, Dalsinghsarai, Samastipur, Kadwa and Barsoi constituencies, which was deferred to October 29 by the Election Commission for security reasons.
