Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar today said that the allegations made by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Supriyo Bhattacharya regarding the time of voting are baseless and beyond facts. He said that in Jharkhand Assembly 2024, voting will be held till 4 pm at only 3 per cent polling stations. In Jharkhand Assembly 2014, voting was held from 7 am to 3 pm at 89 per cent and in 2019 at 63 per cent polling stations. He was addressing a press conference here on Monday.

He said that the facts regarding the allegation made by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha regarding short time of voting in rural areas are as follows.

1. There are a total of 29,562 polling stations in the state, out of which 24,520 are in rural areas and 5,042 are in urban areas.

2. Except for 981 Naxal-affected rural polling stations, the voting time in 23,539 rural polling stations and all urban polling stations is from 7 am to 5 pm.

3. In the 2014 and 2019 assembly elections, the voting time was kept from 7 am to 3 pm at 89% (22,132) and 63% (18,555) polling stations respectively. This time, the time has been kept from 7 am to 4 pm at only 3% (981) polling stations, which has been possible only due to the special efforts of the Commission.

4. There is adequate publicity of the voting time. Whatever be the time of closing of the polling, all the voters standing in the queue at that time get full opportunity to vote.

The Commission has the legal right to fix the time of voting under Section 56 of the Representation of People Act 1951. This time cannot be less than 8 hours. Before fixing the time of voting, the Commission during its visit to the state considers the historical and current issues related to security of the area from the political parties, district administration, state administration. Apart from this, the geographical location of the area, road network, time of sunset according to the season are also taken into consideration. The Chief Electoral Officer of the state takes written recommendation in this regard from all the district administrations and sends it to the Commission.

For villages or village groups affected by Naxalism or having Naxal history, it is ensured that the polling party returns safely after completing the polling process before sunset. On an average, the number of voters at these remote polling stations is less than other urban and rural polling stations.

The Chief Electoral Officer said that a total of 21 candidates have filed nomination papers on Monday for the first phase of assembly elections. So far, a total of 25 people have filed their nomination papers for this. He said that so far six FIRs have been registered for violation of the Model Code of Conduct and action is being taken as per rules.

He appealed to the common citizens and said that if anyone finds any case of violation of Model Code of Conduct from anywhere, then he should immediately upload it on the Election Commission's app C Vigil. The Election Commission will take cognizance of it within 100 minutes and ensure action. He said that since the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, illegal material and cash worth Rs 7 crore 72 lakh have been seized so far.