Jharkhand: Second phase of polling begins in 20 Maoist-affected constituencies

Ranchi : About 16.32 per cent turnout was recorded in the first two hours in 20 Jharkhand Assembly constituencies across seven Maoist-hit districts where polling was underway on Tuesday in the second phase.

Brisk polling was being reported from many places, an Election Commission official said.

“Long queues can be seen at several booths,” he said.

Barring the replacement of a defective EVM at one of the booths in the Jaganathpur assembly constituency, polling was going on smoothly and peacefully, the official said.

Amid tight security, polling began at 7 AM in all the 20 constituencies.

While voting will end at 3 PM in 18 constituencies, it will continue upto 5 PM at Jamshedpur (West) and Jamshedpur (East) seats, the official said.

A total of 44,31,900 voters, including 21,72,982 women, are eligible to cast their franchise in 5,048 polling stations. 223 candidates, including 35 women, are in the fray.

The EC has deployed 20 general observers, 10 expenditure observers, two police observers, two awareness observers and 512 micro observers for this phase of polling.

A total 349 polling stations have been selected for webcasting across the 20 constituencies.

Besides former chief ministers Arjun Munda (Kharsawan) and Madhu Koda (Majhgaon), former deputy chief minister Raghubar Das who is currently the national vice president of BJP (Jamshedpur East), three state ministers including Banna Gupta (Jamshedpur-West), Geetashree Oraon (Sisai), Champai Soren (Seraikella) and several sitting and former MLAs are trying their luck.

First phase polling was held in 13 Maoist-affected seats of the state on November 25 last which witnessed a turnout of 62 per cent. Five-stage elections are being held to the 81-member Jharkhand assembly

This is the third Assembly election in Jharkhand which was carved out of Bihar in 2000.

Brisk polling was reported in several of the 20 constituencies of seven Maoist-hit districts in Jharkhand where second-phase voting is on for the 81-seat Assembly on.

Polling was going on peacefully and 32.10 per cent of the total 44,31,900 voters exercised their franchise in the first four hours, Election Commission sources said.

Long queues were seen in the Maoist-hit areas, where election is being held amid tight security.

Till 11 AM, Baharagora constituency registered the maximum voter turnout of 44.38 per cent followed by Jagannathpur 43 per cent, Majhgaon 40 per cent and Tamar 29 per cent, the sources said.

Barring a defective EVM machine being replaced in Jaganathpur, polling is incident-free, the sources said.

Former Chief Minister Madhu Koda and his MLA wife Gita Koda cast their votes in Jaganathpur constituency.

While Koda is contesting from Majhgaon (ST) seat, his wife is fighting from Jaganathpur (ST) constituency.

Another former Chief Minister Arjun Munda and his wife Meera Munda also exercised his franchise from Kharsawan, from where he is contesting for the fifth time.