The Election Commission of India today announced the schedule for Lok Sabha elections in the country. The Lok Sabha elections will be held in total seven phases in the country, while in Jharkhand elections will be conducted in four phases in the State. The results will be announced on June 4.
There are 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, out of these, five seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and one Lok Sabha seat is reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC), whereas people from general category contest elections on eight seats.
The elections will be held in Jharkhand in the fourth phase in Palamu, Lohardaga, Singhbhum, and Khunti constituencies on 13 May, while in the fifth phase polling will be held in Chatra, Koderma and Hazaribagh on 20th May. In the sixth phase polls will be conducted in Giridih, Dhanbad, Ranchi and Jamshedpur constituencies on 25th May, while in the seventh phase polling will be held in Rajmahal, Dumka and Godda constituencies on June 01.
Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar held a press conference here on Saturday and shared details of the elections.
Jharkhand has a total number of 2,55,18,642 voters, which is 31,54,203 more than that of the 2019 election figures. The total number of male voters in the State is 1,29,97,325, while the number of female voters is 1,25,20,910.
As many as 10,93,718 males are first time voters in the State, while the number of first time female voters in Jharkhand in this election is 11,39,260. The number of voters in the 18-19 age group is 8,08,371. A total of 29,501 polling booths have been made for elections in the State.
Kumar said that all 29521 polling stations across Jharkhand will be developed as model booths having all basic facilities ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He said that the booths will have queue-less facilities for polling this time.
Kumar said that facilities are being made in the polling booths so that voters do not have to stand in queues. A lounge will be made in polling booths, where voters will sit and wait for their turns to exercise their franchise. Also, volunteers will assist the voters with tokens so that they can cast their votes in a proper manner, he said.
The Election Commission is also making theme based booths in every district based on local art, culture of that specific area, which will be decided by the district administration. The CEO, Jharkhand said that some of the booths will also be filled in with all-women, all-youth, all-disabled polling parties to ensure participation of everyone in this festival of democracy.
