Polling in the fourth and final phase of Panchayat election in the State passed off peacefully without any major incident amid tight security arrangements. In the last phase the voting percentage was around 70 per cent, while in Santhal Pargana the voting percentage was 73 per cent. In Santhal Pargana, the maximum voting percentage was 79 per cent, while in Jamtara the voting percentage was 78 per cent.

Voting was from 7 am to 3 pm with long queues of voters were seen at most of booths including those in Maoist ht blocks.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren too encouraged voters to participate in the election. He tweeted, “People from every corner of the state have enthusiastically participated in this great festival of democracy. Best wishes to all again.”

Around 58 lakh voters spread across 1,299 panchayats in 23 districts will elect their local bodies’ representatives. Out of 59.16 lakh voters the female voters is 28.20 lakh while the rest are male voters. The voters will decide the fate of 35,504 candidates.

Out these  35,504 candidates whose fate will be decided these include 15,875 panchayat members, 1,299 mukhiyas, 1,587 panchayat committee representatives and 159 zilla parishad members for total 18,920 posts.  However, a total of 6,950 candidates have already been declared winners unopposed on posts of 6,811 panchayat members, five mukhiyas, 133 panchayat committee representatives and one zilla parishad member in the fourth phase of the elections, officials from State Election Commission said.

Like other phases, panchayat polls in Jharkhand are not being held on party lines; adequate security personnel were deployed at polling booths for fair voting. As many as 6,785 booths have been declared as sensitive and 4,744 hyper-sensitive. The counting of votes for the fourth and final round of election will be held on May 31.

Panchayat polls in the state are being held in four phases with the first phase of polls taking place on May 14. The second and third phases were held on May 19 and 24.