Jharkhand Assembly Election LIVE: Stay tuned for all the latest updates related to Jharkhand Assembly election’s first phase of polling.
Voting for the first phase of Jharkhand Assembly elections will be held today as the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance battle it out with NDA’s BJP, JD(U), and LJP to retain power in the state. The next phase will be held on November 20, with the counting of votes scheduled to be held on November 23.
In the first phase, a total of 683 candidates, including 609 men, 73 women, and one person from the third gender, will be competing for 43 seats.
The prominent leaders who are in the fray in this phase include former Chief Minister Champai Soren, who will be contesting on a BJP ticket after quitting JMM. He has been fielded from his traditional stronghold in Saraikela, from where has won six times since 1991, only facing defeat in 2000. This time, Champai Soren is up against Ganesh Mahali of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), who was previously the BJP candidate. Other key seats to watch out for are Ranchi, Jamshedpur West, Jagannathpur, and Jamshedpur East.
The assembly constituencies going to polls on November 13 include Kodarma, Hazaribagh, Chatra, Baharagora, Ghatsilla, Potka, Barkagaon, Simaria, Ichagarh, Chaibasa, Jugsalai, Manoharpur, Tamar, Torpa, Khunti, Hatia, Majhgaon, Gumla, Bishunpur, Lohardaga, Simdega, Manika, Latehar, Panki Chhatarpur, Daltonganj, Bhawanathpur, Kolebira, Gumla, and Mandar, among others.
Out of the total 81 seats, 44 are general constituencies, 28 are reserved for scheduled tribes (ST), and nine for scheduled castes (SC).
The state has a total of 2.59 crore voters, with 1.31 crore male and 1.28 crore female electors. Voters aged between 20 and 29 number 66.84 lakh, with 11.84 lakh first-time voters aged 18 and 19.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won 25 of these 43 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to bag just 13. The remaining seats were split among Independents (2), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) (1), and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) (1).