The penultimate phase of the Bihar assembly elections on Sunday saw a voter turnout of 57.59%, chief electoral officer Ajay Nayak said. While a majority of the day passed without any major incident, Nayak said the police opened fire and resorted to "mild lathicharge" at Rataura village of Raghunathpur constituency in Siwan district, where tension prevailed after Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Manoj Kumar Singh complained about alleged irregularities at some polling stations, reported The Indian Express.

Fifty-five seats were fought over by 776 candidates in 43 constituencies in this penultimate phase. A total of 14,139 polling booths were set up for the electorate strength of 1,46,93,294 in this phase, which both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Grand Alliance have claimed could prove decisive in securing the outcome of the elections, reported the Press Trust of India.

In the 2010 assembly polls, the BJP and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (United) had together bagged 51 out of the 55 seats in this phase as National Democratic Alliance partners. The Rashtriya Janata Dal had won just one seat back then. This time around, the RJD is the main stakeholder of the Grand Alliance, having fielded its candidates for 26 seats, followed by its allies JD(U) in 21 and the Congress in eight. The BJP fought as many as 42 seats, reported the Hindustan Times.