22 percent voter turnout in Araria till 11 am: Lok Sabha bypoll

Bihar, Mar 11 The bye-election for Bihar's Lok Sabha Araria seat and two assembly seats - Jehanabad and Bhabua started on Sunday.

Till 11 am, 22.42% voter turnout in Araria, 20.3% in Bhabua and 19.2% in Jahanabad was recorded.

The bypolls are being viewed as a litmus test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he pulled out of the state's terrific organization together and joined the BJP.

The Araria situate fell empty after the passing of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Taslimuddin. The key contenders for the seat are RJD's Sarafaraz Alam, Taslimuddin's child, and the BJP's Pradip Singh.

The Bhabua assembly seat got empty after the passing of BJP's Anand Bhushan Pandey, and the gathering has handled his dowager Rinki Rani Pandey. Another key contender for the seat is Shambhu Patel from Congress.

The passing of RJD MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav required the bypoll for Jehanabad seat, and his child Uday Yadav is challenging for the seat. Another key applicant in the shred is JDU's Abhiram Sharma.

Around the same time, the Lok Sabha by-election for two voting demographics of Uttar Pradesh, specifically Gorakhpur and Phulpur were likewise held.

The results for the two states will be announced on March 1.