Sixty per cent polling was witnessed in the 108 polling centres while the inclement weather played its part in the low turnout in areas around Patna, the state capital.

In district after district, the Naxalites raided polling booths and opened fire on unsuspecting and outnumbered policemen. They had also planted mines in many areas which led to panic and chaos near polling centres. The Eelection Commission has expressed deep concern over the spurt in Naxalite violence.The CEC M.S.Gill said in New Delhi that political parties should do some serious thinking on this aspect of the violence which was a threat to the democratic polity. He said that the Commission could do nothing about such violence and that this sort of outbreak could not be equated with usual poll-related violence. He said that the series of meetings that had been held with top security officers on a daily basis ahead of the elections had minimised the extent of the violence.

The RJD has said that the Commission was playing into the hands of the BJP and that the presence of home minister L.K.Advani could only be construed as adding fuel to the sensitive atmosphere in the state before the elections. The Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was in the state too on Saturday.