In Bihar, polling for the first phase of Assembly elections began 7 AM this morning. The polling is being held under tight security cover. The polling will be upto 5 p.m. In Simri Bakhtiarpur assembly constituency polling will be upto 3p.m. Polling is going on in 47 constituencies spread over eight districts of Madhubani, Supaul, Araria, Kishanganj, Purnea, Katihar, Madhepura and Saharsa. Over one crore seven lakh voters will decide the electoral fortune of 631 candidates including 52 women. Important candidates whose fate will be sealed in EVMs today are State Congress Chief Mehboob Ali Kaiser, and three Ministers Vijendra Prasad Yadav,Narendra Narayan Yadav and Smt. Renu Kumari.State Director General of Police said that jawans of central para-military forces have been deployed on booths for peaceful poll. He said, state's border with Nepal and West Bengal has been sealed to prevent any infiltration of anti social elements. The Director General of Police said Jawans of Special Task Force would keep air surveillance from helicopters to ensure trouble free polls.Chief Electoral officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh told that Observers and Micro Observers have been appointed to ensure free and fair polls. Ten thousand eight hundred sixty eight polling booths have been set-up for this purpose. Mr. Rakesh said that for the first time, the Election Commission has made an arrangement to live webcast of the voting process from 20 percent of the booths directly to be monitored by the district election officers, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer at Patna and the Election Commission in New Delhi. Now we take you over to Krishna Kumar Lal who will describe the polling scenario at a polling booth in Madhubani:Meanwhile, the Election Commission has issued a list of 14 alternative documents to be accepted by presiding officers during assembly elections in Bihar to verify the identity of voters in case they do not have Electors photo identity card. These alternative documents include Passport, Driving licence, PAN card, Arms licence, Certificate of physically handicap, Freedom fighter identity card, Cast certificate, Pass book of bank or Post Office, Service identity card issued by state or central government offices and job card issued under NAREGA. Property document such as registered deed, Pension document.Meanwhile, The Election Commission asked the Centre to ban opinion polls immediately through an ordinance. EC Secretary K F Wilfred said in a letter to the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Law and Justice. The EC said it has been observed that various agencies connected with electronic and print media are at present conducting opinion polls in the context of the assembly elections and some of them have even published the result of such polls.The EC added that the conduct of opinion polls and dissemination of results of such polls should be prohibited right from the day of the first notification of an election till the completion of polls in all the phases. It said such a restriction would be in the wider interest of free and fair elections as such opinion polls “often tend to cause prejudicial effect on the minds of electors.