The Bihar police arrested two personal assistants of Bima Bharti, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate from the Purnea Lok Sabha constituency, allegedly with Rs 10 lakh cash on Thursday.

The seat goes to poll on Friday and has attracted much attention due to Independent candidate Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappu Yadav, who has made the contest a triangular one.

Identified as Arvind Jaiswal and Mahavir Mandal, the two were nabbed at an election-related check post in the Rupauli area of Purnea district while travelling in an SUV. A cloth bundle containing cash was seized from them. The vehicle has also been confiscated. A large number of the candidate’s posters were also recovered from it.

The police took both of them to the Rupauli police station for questioning, and an income tax team also rushed there after getting information about the incident.

“Two persons travelling in a vehicle have been caught carrying currency notes worth ₹10 lakh. We are interrogating them and have informed the income tax department about the seizure and they are here,” Rupauli station house officer Amjad Ali said.

Electioneering for Purnea and four other constituencies — Bhagalpur, Katihar, Kishanganj and Banka — ended on Wednesday evening.

Attempts to contact Bima, a five-time MLA from the Rupauli Assembly constituency and wife of gangster Awadhesh Mandal, did not succeed as her mobile phone was out of the coverage area.

JDU candidate Santosh Kumar, Bima and Pappu are locked in a triangular contest in Purnea.