Chapra can wait a few more days. The Election Commission has, meanwhile, made up its mind on repolling in 232 polling stations in 14 constituencies in Bihar. Repolling will be held on May 10.Even as the EC cited time as a reason why a decision on Chapra has not been taken, sources said repolling could be held in 150-odd booths there.JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav, who is contesting against RJD’s Laloo Prasad Yadav from Madhepura, is luckier than BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy as repolling in 15 Madhepura polling stations has been ordered.Repolling has also been ordered in 92 polling booths in Munger, followed by 39 in Banka, 20 in Khagaria, 18 in Saharsa and 13 in Begusarai. EC sources said the two-member fact-finding team which went to Chapra on Sunday and Monday after complaints of large-scale rigging and violence, is yet to submit its report. While Rudy may be sulking over Chapra, Laloo came to Nirvachan Sadan to complain about the ‘‘filmsy’’ rigging charges being labelled against RJD activists in Bihar.After a nearly 30-minute meeting with the three-member commission, Laloo said polling was peaceful in Bihar this time ‘‘and the credit goes to the Election Commission, state government and Laloo Prasad Yadav’’.‘‘Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy and other NDA ministers have raised a hue and cry and misled the commission that there were irregularities in Chapra,’’ he said, adding it was their ‘‘old habit to save their face from the ignominy of defeat’’.Asked about his opinion on the BJP demand for countermanding of polling in Chapra, the RJD chief, who is locked in a fierce contest with Rudy there, said the NDA leaders had submitted false reports to the Commission.‘‘We have told the commission that it was free to hold repoll in those polling booths where it felt there was rigging. We are not making any demand as polling was peaceful,’’ Laloo, who was accompanied by party MP Prem Gupta, said. On his allegation that BSF personnel were found helping the voters in two polling stations in Madhepura to cast their ballots, Yadav demanded that action should be taken against those securitymen as their role could lower the credibility of the para-military forces.He said the EC gave him a patient hearing and promised to take appropriate decision. ‘‘I am fully satisfied with EC’s assurance,’’ he added.
