Voters in as many as 20 Assembly segments, including that of Chief Minister Raghubar Das, will exercise their franchise on Saturday in the second phase of polls – one of the most crucial among the five phases in which elections for the 81 Assembly seats here are being held since November 30.
As per details shared by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the voting will begin at 7 am on Saturday at 6,066 polling stations spread across the 20 constituencies. Electors who reach the polling station by 3pm will be allowed to cast their votes, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinay Kumar Choubey said on Friday.
The voters in Jamshedpur East and Jamshedpur West will get two extra hours to cast their votes as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to extend the voting process till 5 pm in areas that do not have presence of Left Wing Extremist (LWE) groups, Choubey added. Jamshedpur East and Jamshedpur West mostly cover urban areas.
As many as 48,25,038 electors — 24,31,511 men and 23,93,437 women — are enlisted in the electoral roll in this phase of polls. At least 44,975 voters here are above the age of 80 years and 62,053 are differently-abled. “There are 337 model polling booths in this phase. Webcasting of the polling process will be done at 1,662 booths,” Choubey said.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das will be defending his seat, Jamshedpur East — a BJP stronghold — against BJP Minister-turned-independent candidate Saryu Roy and Congress party’s Gaurav Vallabh. Despite the tough contest, political gurus are of the opinion that Das is the frontrunner in his constituency.
Security personnel — from State as well as Central forces — have been deployed in sufficient numbers across the districts that will vote on Saturday in order to avert any attacks by LWE groups. Additional Director General of Police (Operations), ML Meena said that the police have identified pockets that have LWE presence and are taking extra precautions to intercept any LWE movement in the areas.
The first phase of polls, held across six LWE-affected districts, did not witness any violence barring a low intensity explosion in Gumla. Law enforcement agencies, however, have deployed additional forces in the districts going to polls on Saturday as some of these districts witnessed a spurt in LWE incidents soon after the 17th General Elections earlier this year.
Saraikela Kharsawan, one of the districts going to polls on Saturday, witnessed at least three encounters between security forces and CPI (Maoist) rebels after the Lok Sabha polls this year. On May 28, nearly 11 security personnel of Central police force and State police were injured after the insurgents triggered a series of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts early morning in Rai Sindri hills under Kuchai police station limits of Saraikela Kharsawan. Later, on June 14, the CPI (Maoist) shot dead five policemen at a weekly bazaar within the limits of the district.
The constituencies going to polls on Saturday include Ghatshila, Potka, Khunti, Tamar, Saraikela and Kharsawan — all marked as LWE sensitive zones, prone to attacks by insurgents, police sources said. The remaining 14 constituencies going to polls in the second phase are Baharagora, Jugsalai, Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West, Chaibasa, Manjhgaon, Jaganathpur, Manoharpur, Chakradharpur, Mandar, Torpa, Sisai, Simdega and Kolebira.
A total of 260 candidates — 231 men and 29 women — are in fray for the 20 seats in the second phase of polls, a communiqué from the Chief Electoral Officer’s Office said on Frdiay. The ruling BJP and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi-led Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) are the only two parties that have fielded candidates in all the 20 constituencies. While the Congress party has fielded candidates in six constituencies, its ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has nominated candidates in the remaining 14 seats. With four women candidates, JVM-P has given the highest share of seats to women in the second phase of elections here.
Choubey said ECI’s Booth App will be used in Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West and Chaibasa during the second phase of polls to facilitated real-time monitoring of voting trends. The Booth App will be used in only 10 of 81 Assembly constituencies in Jharkhand during this election, he added.
Through the Booth App, voters will be able to get real-time status of their polling booth and time their visit accordingly in order to avoid waiting in queue. The BLOs will also be able to use the App and know the real-time status of voter turnout in a particular polling station. The App was used in pilot projects during the Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana elections.
