The second and final phase of voting for the 2024 assembly elections in Jharkhand was completed on Wednesday. With this, the fate of 528 candidates also got sealed in the EVMs. The estimated voting till 5 pm in the last phase was around 67.59 per cent.
In the last phase, 528 candidates have entered the electoral fray to try their luck. Of these, 472 candidates are men and 55 women. Voting took place at 14219 polling stations in the last phase. All these polling stations were monitored through webcasting from the State Election Bhawan and District Election Office.
A third gender candidate Ashwini Ambedkar is also contesting from Giridih in the last phase of elections. At the same time, Bokaro had the highest number of 5,84,275 voters during this period. The reserved seat Littipara had the lowest number of 2,17,847 voters.
Dr. Neha Arora, the Additional Chief Electoral Officer of Jharkhand, reported that the highest voter turnout was observed in the Maheshpur constituency at 79.40%, followed by Nala with 78.75% and Sarath with 77.94%.
In contrast, Bokaro recorded the lowest voter turnout at 50.52%, while Dhanbad and Jharia followed with 52.31% and 55.23%, respectively.
Dr. Arora noted that all constituencies, except Bokaro, Dhanbad, and Jharia, achieved voter turnout rates exceeding 60%. She also stated that by 3 PM, 134 ballot units, 161 control units, and 377 VVPATs had been replaced during polling.
Additionally, an FIR was lodged against presiding officer Ramanand Kumar Paswan, stationed at polling booth number 111 in the Madhupur assembly constituency, as per orders from the Election Commission. Paswan was taken into custody after a webcasting complaint confirmed he cast votes in favor of the JMM candidate. Dr. Arora confirmed that a replacement officer was appointed to the polling station.
Holding a press conference after end of polling Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar said that the second phase of polling was completed peacefully. The report of voter turnout is expected by 11 pm, while the complete report of end of poll will come by Thursday afternoon.
EVM machines will be sealed in the strong room after scrutiny by Thursday afternoon. He said that five cases have been registered on Wednesday for violation of Model Code of Conduct and action is being taken to register a case on one.
State Police Nodal Officer AV Homkar said that after the end of polling, the polling personnel are returning to their respective destinations with EVM machines under tight security and surveillance. He said that in the second phase of elections, 891 booths were sensitive regarding Naxalites, whereas 6828 booths were in the critical category. For this, 585 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed.
There were 60 companies of state armed forces. Apart from this, 26000 additional jawans of home guard and state police were deployed. Cobra and Jharkhand Jaguar jawans were continuously active in the Naxalite areas.
He said that the border of Bengal and Bihar was sealed for the voting. 114 check posts were made there. Bihar and Bengal also cooperated and made 124 check posts in their border areas. During this, 115 illegal firearms and 1800 cartridges were seized. Along with that, legal action was taken against 34 thousand people.
During the entire election, only the state police has seized illegal material and cash worth Rs 163 crore. At the same time, the Chief Electoral Officer told that since the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, a total of Rs 207.36 crore illegal material and cash has been seized.
With the completion of the last phase of voting, the election process in Jharkhand is complete. Now the election results will be out on November 23.
