Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar today said that in the seventh phase of elections, an estimated 68.32 per cent voting has taken place in Dumka, Rajmahal and Godda. At some places, voting continued till late evening. Voting was completely peaceful. Three cases of Model Code of Conduct have been registered. He said that 67.48 per cent voting has taken place in Rajmahal parliamentary constituency.
This figure of voting in Dumka was 70.58 per cent and in Godda parliamentary constituency it was 67.24 per cent. He said that a driver named Narayan Das engaged in election work in Jamtara of Dumka parliamentary constituency died in an accident. He was a resident of Asansol, West Bengal. His family members will be given ex-gratia grant as per rules. He was holding a joint press conference with State Police Nodal Officer AV Homkar at Nirvachan Sadan, Dhurva on Saturday.
State Police Nodal Officer AV Homkar said that 40 thousand security forces were deployed to conduct fair and fear-free voting in a total of 6 districts of the three parliamentary constituencies. In coordination with West Bengal and Bihar, an intensive campaign was carried out in the areas adjoining the state's border. The border was sealed at a total of 49 locations.
He said that out of a total of 6258 booths, 130 booth areas were marked as Naxalite affected. However, at present the Naxalite activity there was negligible. Still, extensive security arrangements were made to deal with any untoward incident.
JMM candidate from Dumka, Nalin Soren reached the polling station before time and cast his vote with his family. Rajmahal’s JMM candidate Vijay Hansda, MLA Deepika Pandey Singh, former Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi, Godda MLA Amit Mandal, Littipara JMM MLA Dinesh William Marandi, Rajmahal MLA Anant Ojha also act their votes in the last phase.
In Gooda constituency Congress candidate Pradeep Yadav, BJP’s Nishikant Dubey, Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari, Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Ravindra Nath Mahato, former MP Furkan Ansari were some of the prominent figures, who cast their votes.
There is a direct contest between BJP's Dr Nishikant Dubey and Congress' Pradeep Yadav in Godda, while in Dumka JMM family’s Sita Soren is contesting on BJP against and JMM's Nalin Soren. The fight on the Rajmahal seat has become triangular. JMM's Vijay Hansda, BJP's Tala Marandi and JMM's rebel candidate Lobin Hembram are in the fray as an independent candidate.
