Ranchi: A voter turnout of 13.04 per cent was recorded till 9 AM on Wednesday in 43 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand where voting is underway in the first phase, officials said. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren and ex-MP Geeta Kora are among those prominent faces whose electoral fate will be decided in the first phase on Wednesday.
Simdega had the highest voter turnout at 15.09%, followed by Lohardaga, Koderma, and Seraikela-Kharsawan at around 15%. Ramgarh and Khunti both saw 14.37% voting, while Gumla, West Sinbhum, and Latehar had about 13.80-13.93%. Other districts showed polling percentages ranging from 11.25% to 13.41%.
Polling began at 7 am in 43 assembly segments spread across 15 districts, and will continue till 5 pm. The Election Commission of India has announced that the polling will conclude at 4 pm in 950 booths. The Commission has set up 15,344 polling stations for the first phase. Of these, 12,716 booths were set up in rural and 2,628 in urban areas.
As usual, people who join the queue within the prescribed time will be allowed to cast their votes. As per the ECI, a total of 1.37 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the Wednesday polling. A lone transgender is fighting the election whereas the rest 683 candidates comprise 73 women and 609 men.
Of the 43 seats that went to polls, 20 were earmarked for Scheduled Tribes and six for Scheduled Castes while the rest 17 are up for grabs for general category candidates. According to Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar, all preparations for voting have been completed and polling personnel have reached the stations.
"The responsibility of the entire voting process at 1,152 polling stations will be in the hands of women, Kumar said, adding that 24 booths will be manned by persons with disabilities."
The CEO said a total of Rs 208.78 crore worth of mobile assets including cash were seized since the Model Code of Conduct was implemented.
Poll planks
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance is looking to retain power in a tough fight put up by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA. The former is banking on its welfare schemes including Maiyan Samman Yojana to fight anti-incumbency. The saffron party has made an aggressive Hindutva pitch making infiltration as its primary poll plank and accusing the current dispensation of indulging in corruption.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP chief JP Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma made multiple stops in the state, attacking the ruling JMM-led coalition. Their campaign was focused on 'Roti, Beti, Maati'.
They promised to "drive out infiltrators", implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), dole out Rs 2,100 per month to every woman and create 5 lakh employment opportunities for the youth.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his wife and legislator Kalpana Soren carried out a high-intensity campaign. Besides welfare, the INDIA bloc leaders accused the BJP-led Centre of "unleashing" all central agencies including ED, CBI and I-T against the opposition. The bloc attempted to capitalise on the "suppression of the voice of a tribal CM".
The ruling dispensation, wanting to counter BJP's 'Gogo Didi' scheme (monthly financial assistance to women), promised Rs 2,500. The other promises include providing 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs, drafting a domicile policy based on 1932 as the cut-off year for land records, and implementing the Sarna Dharma Code.
"A separate tribal / Sarna code is necessary to identify the Sarna or nature worshipping tribals as distinct from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain followers and to protect their constitutional rights," Soren wrote in a letter to PM Modi, asking to add Sarna as one of the religions during the census.
The alliance also offered to hike reservations for the OBC, SC and ST communities to 27 per cent, 12 per cent, and 28 per cent respectively.
Heavyweights in the fray
Soren, who is contesting from Seraikela on a BJP ticket, faces a challenge from former JMM's Ganesh Mahli. BJP’s Geeta Kora, wife of former CM Madhu Koda, will take on Congress' Sona Ram Sinku in Jagannathpur. Congress leader Rameshwar Oraon is up against AJSU Party's Shanti Bhagat in Lohardaga.
In Jamshedpur (West), JD (U) candidate Saryu Roy will face Congress' Banna Gupta. In 2019, Roy who fought as an Independent, defeated sitting CM Raghubar Das.
In Jamshedpur (East), BJP's Purnima Sahu Das, the daughter-in-law of Odisha Governor Raghubar Das, is pitted trying her electoral luck against Congress' Ajoy Kumar, an IPS officer-turned-politician. Kumar had once represented Jamshedpur as an MP.
In Potka, former CM Arjun Munda's wife Meera Munda is contesting against JMM's Sanjiv Sardar. The second phase of elections will be held on November 20 while the votes will be counted on November 23.
In 2019, the JMM won 30 seats and the BJP bagged 25. The JMM-Congress-RJD combined tally was at 47 seats. The current membership of the assembly stands at 74. Of which the ruling alliance has 44 members -- 26 from the JMM, 17 from Congress, and one from RJD.
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