Informist, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024

NEW DELHI – The voter turnout in the first phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections was 65.9% on Wednesday, the Election Commission said, adding that these are provisional figures and will be updated later. Polling for 43 assembly constituencies across 15 districts was held peacefully without any incident of violence, the commission said.

The Lohardaga district recorded the highest turnout of 73.21% followed by Seraikella-Kharsawan with 72.19% while Ranchi recorded the lowest turnout of 61.80%. The overall voter turnout of 65.9% in 43 seats surpassed the 63.9% turnout recorded in 2019 assembly elections.

"In the Manoharpur and Jaganathpur Assembly constituency of West Singhbhum district, voters chose to cast their vote in spite of boycott posters and threat calls by extremists. At polling stations in Sonapi in Jaganathpur seat and Rabangada in Manoharpur seat, security forces thwarted attempts to prevent voters from voting through boycott posters and blockades on the way," the poll panel said.

Simultaneously, by-polls were also held in 31 Assembly constituencies across 10 states and in Wayanad Lok Sabha seat of Kerala. The high-profile Wayanad Lok Sabha seat saw 62.41% polling till the filing of this report. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut in Wayanad.

Voting for 43 seats across 15 districts in the first phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections commenced at 0700 IST Wednesday amid tight security arrangements and concluded at 1700 IST except at 950 booths in Naxal-affected areas, where it concluded at 1600 IST. Of the 43 seats, 20 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and six for Scheduled Castes.

In Jharkhand, a total of 683 candidates, including six state cabinet ministers and former chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Champai Soren were in the fray. Soren contested from Seraikella. In Jamshedpur East, former Indian Police Service officer and Congress leader Ajoy Kumar faced BJP's Purnima Das Sahu, daughter-in-law of former Jharkhand chief minister and current Odisha Governor Raghubar Das. In Jamshedpur West, state health minister and Congress leader Banna Gupta was pitted against Janata Dal (United) leader Saryu Roy. In Jagannathpuram, the BJP's Geeta Koda, wife of former chief Minister Madhu Koda, contested against Congress leader Sona Ram Sinku. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has fielded Rajya Sabha member Mahua Maji as its candidate for the Ranchi assembly seat.

The remaining 38 seats in the state will go to polls in the second phase on Nov. 20, when Assembly elections in Maharashtra will also be held, and the results will be announced on Nov. 23. In the 2019 polls, the JMM-led alliance had bagged 47 seats, with the JMM winning 30 seats, the Congress 16, and the RJD one. The BJP had won 25 seats. End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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