Campaigning for the 47 of 243 Assembly constituencies in Bihar that go to polls on October 21 ended on Tuesday.
Prominent among the 635 contestants are senior Janata Dal (United) ministers, Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Narendra Narain Yadav, Renu Kumari, Congress nominee Ranjeet Ranjan, wife of incarcerated former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, State Congress chief Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Congress candidate Lovely Anand.
The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are contesting all the 47 seats. The ruling JD(U) will be contesting in 26 seats and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party in 21 seats. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is contesting in 31 seats and its ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in 16 seats, while the Communist Party of India(Marxist) has put up candidates at seven seats, Communist Party of India in 11 seats, CPI(ML) in 17 and Nationalist Congress Party in 33 seats.
Around 1.06 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at 10,454 polling centres.
Multi-cornered contests are lined up in all 47 Assembly segments of Saharsa, Madhepura, Madhubani, Supaul, Purnia, Araria, Katihar and Kishanganj districts.
Prominent people who hit the campaign trial were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, general secretary Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, besides Union Ministers, including Salman Khurshid and Mukul Wasnik.
NDA campaigners included JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav, his BJP counterpart Nitin Gadkari and senior party leader Arun Jaitley.
Among others who campaigned were CPI leader D. Raja and CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, besides BSP chief Mayawati.
The major issues included post-Kosi flood management, rehabilitation of the displaced and a pending railway project in Madhepura.
Election officials said polling would be held from 7 am to 5 pm in all constituencies barring Maoist-hit ones where the elections would end at 3 pm.
