Close contests among the 20 candidates in Dhanbad and 15 in Giridih are set to make the fourth phase of elections in Jharkhand interesting. The NDA and ‘Mahagathbandhan’ allies are set to be the key players in the two crucial constituencies, which will go to polls on Sunday.
Both the Lok Sabha constituencies are considered BJP’s stronghold. However, the NDA has fielded AJSU-party’s Chandra Prakash Choudhary against Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) Jagarnath Mahto in Giridih this time around. Dhanbad, on the other hand, will witness a head on contest between BJP’s incumbent parliamentarian PN Singh and Congress party’s Kirti Azad, a former cricketer who recently quit the BJP and joined the UPA fold.
In 2014, the BJP swept the elections here by winning Dhanbad by a margin of 2.92 lakh votes and Giridih by 40,000 votes.
A bi-polar contest is expected in both the constituencies though Dhanbad may witness a triangular contest. independent candidate Siddharth Goutam, who gets the backing of the famous Singh Mansion of Dhanbad, has also filed nomination for the seat.
Security has been beefed up in both the constituencies, which have active presence of Left Wing Extremist (LWE) groups and local gangs run by coal mafias.
Most of the areas in the two constituencies are surrounded by dense forests and hilly terrains which are haven for outlawed CPI (Maoist).
Drinking water, health, electricity, road connectivity, education and employment are among the major issues in the constituencies.
“Central Para Military Forces (CPMF) including Jaguar, Jharkhand police, SISS and CRPF personnel with Zonal and Super Zonal Magistrates, Micro observers will be deployed to conduct a peaceful poll,” said P Murgun, Superintendent of Police, Bokaro.
Both LS constancies share few parts of Bokaro district, which has highest number of electors.
District Electoral Officer of Giridih KN Jha said that rural voters turned up in large numbers of exercise their franchise last time and the same is expected this year.
“It was seen that areas with a higher rate of literacy had a lower voter turnout compared to areas with poor literacy rate across the constituency,” he added.
