Close to 60 percent of the 1.37 crore electors cast their franchise amidst tight security eight hours into polling for 43 seats in phase one of the Jharkhand Assembly election on Wednesday.
Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar told mediapersons that 59.28 percent of the eligible voters have exercised their franchise by pressing the EVM buttons till 3 p.m.
“The polling percentage is 59.28 percent till 3 p.m. The voting is proceeding peacefully,” Ravi Kumar said.
The polling for 43 of 81 seats in the mineral-rich tribal-dominated Eastern Indian state began at 7 am amidst scenes of enthusiasm. Polling is scheduled to end at 5 pm in most of the booths. But in 950 of the booths the scheduled time for closing of voting is 4 p.m due to security reasons.
However, the CEO said all those who queue up before the booths by the scheduled deadline will be allowed to vote.
Earlier, People queued up before polling booths in strength even before the start of polling to exercise their democratic choice early. A large number of women and youth, including many first-time voters, were seen waiting patiently for their turn to vote in the cities, towns and villages.
To prevent any untoward incidents, the authorities have pressed into service over two hundred companies of security forces amidst what appears to be an all-out battle between the ruling INDIA, helmed by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), and the BJP-led NDA.
The voters can choose their representatives during the day from a pool of 683 candidates, 73 of them women and one candidate from the third gender.
Among the keenly watched constituencies are Seraikella, Jaganathpur and Jamshedpur East.
The BJP has nominated former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren, who crossed over to the saffron outfit from the JMM in the run-up to the election, from Seraikella.
Jamshedpur East will see a duel between Congress nominee Ajoy Kumar, a former police superintendent of Jamshedpur, and Purnima Das Sahu, daughter-in-law of ex Jharkhand Chief Minister and present Odisha Governor Raghubar Das.
In Jaganathpur, BJP’s Geeta Koda, wife of former Chief Minister Madhu Koda, is taking on Congress leader Sona Ram Sinku.
Jamshedpur West has the highest number of candidates at 28, while only eight candidates are in fray from Jagannathpur.
The rest 38 seats will see voting on November 20.
The vote count is on November 23.
