Voting on 20 of the 38 seats in the last phase in Jharkhand, polling parties left, elaborate arrangements at the booths
Ranchi, November 19 (IANS). In the second and last phase of Jharkhand Assembly elections, polling parties have been sent on Tuesday for voting on 38 seats in 12 districts on November 20. They have been sent to their destination by buses, trains and small vehicles. Before the departure of the polling parties from Ranchi, folk artists encouraged them with songs and dances. After this, after applying tilak, he was sent off for duty in the festival of democracy.
State Chief Electoral Officer Ravi Kumar said that a total of 14 thousand 218 polling stations have been set up on all these seats, where polling parties will reach by the evening of November 19. All vehicles carrying polling parties are being tracked through GPS. In case they deviate from the route map, they will be monitored from the control room. By Tuesday evening, all the polling parties will reach the designated clusters and centres.
For the security of polling centers and polling parties, 585 companies of central paramilitary forces, 60 companies of JAP (Jharkhand Armed Force), besides 30 thousand personnel of district forces and home guards have been deployed.
Mock poll will be conducted at all polling stations on the morning of November 20 and after that voting will start from 7 am. In this phase, there are 31 highly sensitive polling stations where voting will take place only from 7 in the morning to 4 in the evening. Apart from these, votes can be cast at 13 thousand 187 other centers till 5 pm. 2414 polling stations are located in urban areas, while the number of booths in rural areas is 11 thousand 804. 48 booths have been developed as unique booths. There are 239 booths which will be completely operated by women personnel. The arrangements of 22 polling stations will be handled by disabled workers, while the arrangements of 26 polling stations have been handed over to the youth. The entire voting process will be monitored through webcasting. Cameras have been installed at all the centers for recording.
The seats on which voting is to be held in this phase include 18 seats each in Santhal Pargana division and North Chotanagpur division and two seats in South Chotanagpur division. Eight seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and three for Scheduled Castes, while the number of general seats is 27. In this phase, a total of 528 candidates are in the fray, whose fate will be decided by a total of 1 crore 23 lakh 58 thousand 195 voters.
In this phase, Mandu assembly constituency of Hazaribagh district is the largest in terms of area and Jharia assembly constituency of Dhanbad district is the smallest. The maximum number of 5 lakh 82 thousand 101 voters are in Bokaro assembly seat, while the least number of 2 lakh 17 thousand 388 voters are in Littipara seat of Santhal Pargana.
Major candidates of this phase include CM Hemant Soren as JMM candidate from Barhet seat, BJP state president and first CM of the state Babulal Marandi from Rajdhanwar seat, JMM’s star campaigner Kalpana Soren from Gandey seat, JMM candidate from Nala seat. Assembly Speaker Rabindranath Mahato, Assembly Leader of Opposition Amar Bauri on Chandankiyari seat, Congress candidate Minister Deepika Pandey Singh on Mahagama seat, Congress quota Minister Irfan Ansari in Jamtara, JMM quota Minister Hafeezul Hasan in Madhupur, JMM on Dumri seat. Candidates include Minister Baby Devi, AJSU Party chief Sudesh Mahato on Silli seat and CM Hemant Soren’s brother Basant Soren on Dumka seat.
–IANS
SNC/AS
