Jharkhand state saw the initiation of the second phase of polling on Saturday. In the second phase, voting will be held across the 20 constituencies. A total of 260 candidates will be seen contesting. To exercise their voting rights, around 48,25,038 voters will participate in the second phase.
Jharkhand Election Schedule-
- Phase-1: Polls on 30 November
- Phase 2: Polls on 7 December
- Phase 3: Polls on 12 December
- Phase 4: Polls on 16 December
- Phase 5: Polls on 20 December
The state is going to polls for 81 assembly seats. Polls are being conducted in five phases. The term of the exisiting assembly ends on January 5 next year. In the first phase, elections were conducted across 13 Assembly constituencies such as Chatra (SC), Gumla (ST), Latehar (SC), Daltonganj and Garhwa.
In the second phase, elections will be conducted on 20 Assembly constituencies. Prominent regions are Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West, Chaibasa (ST), and Khunti (ST).
Voting started at 7 am and it will continue till 3 pm. However, there is one exception that is Jamshedpur-East and Jamshedpur-West constituencies where polling will end at 5 pm.
In this phase, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, state assembly speaker Dinesh Oraon, Saryu Roy and BJP state president Laxman Gilua are the key players who will participate in the electoral race.
CM Raghubar Das will be contesting against independent candidate Saryu Roy in Jamshedpur-East constituency while state assembly speaker and BJP candidate Dinesh Oraon will contest against Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate Jigga Susaran Horo in Sisai seat.
According to the information provided by the State chief election officer, 949 booths have been labeled as hypersensitive while 762 are identified as sensitive booths because of Naxal violence. Speaking on the matter, he said, “2005 booths have been identified as hyper-sensitive and 762 as sensitive in non-Naxal areas while 1,588 general booths have also been identified. All the hypersensitive and sensitive booths will have a deployment of armed security personnel and polling officials have been sent to 155 booths by helicopters.”
Interesting seats to watch out for-
- Chakradharpur seat where BJP chief Laxman Gilua contest against JMM’s Sukhram Oraon.
- Khunti seat where Neelkanth Singh Munda will fight against JMM’s Sushil Pahan. This seat will also see JVM-P candidate and social activist Dayamani Barla as a tough competitor who is associated with the Patthalgadi movement.
- Tamar seat where JMM’s Vikas Munda will stand against BJP’s Rita Devi.