Ranchi, November 20 (IANS). Voting for the 81-member assembly was completed in Jharkhand. In the second and last phase on Wednesday, 67.59 percent voters exercised their franchise on 38 seats. This is the preliminary figure till 5 pm. The final figure may increase by a few percent. Earlier, in the first phase of elections held on 13 November on 43 seats, 66.65 percent voting was recorded.
Maximum 79.40 percent voters have cast their votes in Maheshpur assembly seat of Santhal Pargana. Other seats with highest voting in this phase include Nala (78.75) of Jamtara district, Sarath (77.94) of Deoghar district, Silli (76.70) of Ranchi district, Shikaripada (74.31) seat of Dumka district. The lowest voting was recorded in Bokaro urban seat at 50.52 percent and in Dhanbad at 52.31 percent.
The most important thing was that after the coming into existence of a separate state of Jharkhand, this was the first assembly election in which there was no major incident of violence. A record of bumper voting was made in the areas which were affected by Naxalism for decades. This election was also notable in the sense that women set a record for the highest number of votes. In the first phase, women had voted in greater numbers than men on 37 out of 43 seats.
The same trend followed in the second phase of voting on Wednesday. The seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes have seen more voting than general seats. There were a total of more than 2 crore 26 lakh voters in the state including both the phases. With this, the fate of a total of 1,211 candidates contesting the elections has been sealed in EVMs.
These include Chief Minister Hemant Soren from Barhet seat, former CM Champai Soren from Seraikela, BJP State President and first CM of the state Babulal Marandi from Rajdhanwar seat, Leader of Opposition of Jharkhand Assembly Amar Kumar Bauri from Chandankiyari, Assembly Speaker Ravindranath Mahato from Nala seat, Gandey. JMM’s star campaigner Kalpana Soren from the seat and AJSU party chief Sudesh Mahato from Silli seat are also included.
Among the prominent candidates are ten out of 11 ministers of Hemant Soren government, former CM Arjun Munda’s wife Meera Munda, former CM Madhu Koda’s wife Geeta Koda, Hemant Soren’s brother Basant Soren and his sister-in-law Sita Soren.
There was only one polling station in the state where 100 percent voters exercised their franchise. This polling station was built for leprosy affected voters in Hansipahadi Snehpur under Jamtara assembly seat. According to the Election Commission, a total of 57 voters are registered in the voter list of this polling station and all of them exercised their franchise with enthusiasm.
On Wednesday, action was taken against two polling officers in Jharkhand on charges of bias in duty during voting. The first among these is the presiding officer of Deoghar, who was removed from duty. These were found near the vote casting compartment.
The second is the presiding officer of Madhupur, against whom an FIR has been registered for organizing voting in favor of a particular party. They have been taken into custody. A complaint was received against him for voting in favor of the JMM candidate.
–IANS
SNC/ABM
