The final phase of elections in Jharkhand on Sunday witnessed the highest voter turnout of 71 per cent, surpassing the poll percentage in the first three phases of elections here. The voter turnout did not cross the 65 per cent mark in the first three phases of elections in Jharkhand.
The total voter turnout in Jharkhand this election was 66.53 per cent, much higher than 2014 election’s 63.82 per cent, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) L Khiangte. On Sunday, the voter turnout in Rajmahal was 70.97 per cent. In Dumka and Godda, the poll percentage was 71.10 and 69.02 respectively.
“In comparison with 2014, the poll percentage increased in all the three constituencies that voted on Sunday,” Khiangte said. In 2014, the voter turnout in Rajmahal was 70.32 per cent, the turnout in Dumka was 70.94 per cent and in Godda it was 65.98 per cent.
The polling started at 7am on Sunday and continued till 4pm. The voters who reached the polling booth and stood in queues before 4pm were given extended deadline for casting their votes. The voter turnout had crossed the 50 per cent mark by 1pm on Sunday, indicating that maximum votes were cast in the first half of the day.
No major incident of violence was reported from any of the three constituencies, said Khiangte, adding that peaceful polls were conducted across the 14 constituencies in Jharkhand this year.
A total of 27,536 poll personnel monitored the elections on Sunday across the 6,258 polling stations. More than half of the over 45 lakh electorates in the final phase were below the age of 40 years. Out of the total electorates, 23,64,541 are men and 22,00,119 are women, while 21 represent the third gender. Among the voters in the age bracket of 18 to 40 years, around 13 lakh are men and around 12 lakh are women. Young voters, in the age bracket of 18-25 years formed 16.29 per cent of the total electorates in the three constituencies.
Elections in Jharkhand started on April 29 and the final polling happened on Sunday. The total number of electorates in Jharkhand this election was 2,24,04179. Out of them, 1,16,98,304 were men and 1,06,65,268 were women. The elections were held in 29,464 polling stations across the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. As many as 3,32,960 millennial voters made their way to the electoral roll in Jharkhand this year. As per figures with the CEO’s office, at least 85.12 per cent of the 1,24,377 differently-abled voters cast their votes here.
As many as 229 candidates contested the elections in the four phases of polls in Jharkhand this year. Out of them, 95 contested as independent candidates and the remaining 134 were backed by various political parties.
The polling process in 2775 polling stations was webcast during the elections in the state this year. The polling stations here included 1487 model polling booths and 448 women polling booths.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contested 13 of 14 seats here and gave one seat to its ally AJSU-party. The Congress party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) formed the grand alliance and fielded candidates in all the 14 constituencies here.
