Ranchi, Nov 20 (UNI) Over 67 percent of the total 1.23 crore electors exercised their franchise amid heavy security arrangements for 38 seats in the second and final phase of the Jharkhand Assembly election on Wednesday.
According to the Election Commission data, the voter turnout was approximately 67.59 percent when polling officially drew to a close at 5 p.m.
Of the total 81 constituencies in the state, 43 had voted in round one on November 13.
According to the EC, the polling figure was the highest at 76.15 percent in Jamtara district, followed by Pakur at 75.88 percent. Bokaro district saw the lowest polling of 60.97 per cent.
Among the Assembly constituencies, Maheshpur has recorded the highest turnout of 79.4 percent. The polling was lowest in the Bokaro constituency at 50.52 percent.
The polling began at 7 a.m with people coming out to vote in large numbers wearing colourful dresses. In 31 of the total 14,218 booths that saw poling during the day, voting officially concluded at 4 p.m.
Among the prominent people who voted are state BJP president and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, All Jharkhand Students Union chief and former state Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto, state Leader of the Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.
Meanwhile, Union Minister and Kodarma MP Annapurna Devi posted a video on her x account alleging that in a booth under Gandey constituency women from a minority community are voting in groups with the “connivance of the administration”. She claimed that such voting was violative of the rules of secret voting. It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren is the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate from Gandey.
Annapurna Dev also alleged that such irregularities were noticed in many places and demanded the intervention of the Election Commission.
Altogether 528 candidates including 472 men, 55 women, and one from the third gender have thrown their hats into the ring for this round of elections,
The heavyweight candidates in this phase are Chief Minister Hemant Soren from Berhait, Babulal Marandi from Dhanwar, Sudesh Mahto from Silli and Assembly Speaker Ravindra Nath Mahto (JMM) from Nala.
Besides, there are other star contestants like Kalpana Soren (JMM) from Gandey, JMM chief Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren (BJP) from Jamtara, Louis Marandi (JMM) from Jama and Lobin Hembram (BJP) from Borrio.
Unlike the first phase of elections in the state, the majority of the seats (27) in the final round belong to the general category, while eight are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and three for Scheduled Castes (SC).
To ensure trouble-free polling, the Election Commission has deployed 585 companies of central forces and 60 companies of Jharkhand Armed Police, besides 30,000 district police personnel and homeguards.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), helmed by the Bharatiya Janata Party is locked in an intense fight with the incumbent Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-headed Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) for forming the next government in the tribal-dominated state.
The votes will be counted alongside those of the Maharashtra Assembly polls on November 23.
