Around 62% voter turnout was recorded till 5pm in the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Jharkhand on Monday, as per data by the Election Commission.
Till 5 pm, Chatra recorded a voter turnout of 60.26%, Hazaribagh 63.66%, and Koderma 61.60%. The overall turnout in the state was 61.90%. Barring a few stray incidents, voting was peaceful in all three constituencies. In Hazaribagh, villagers boycotted polling at booths 183 and 184 in Kusumbha village under Katkamdag due to unmet demands for a bridge.
Apart from the three Lok Sabha constituencies of Hazaribagh, Koderma and Chatra, voting for Gandey Assembly bypoll was also held where Kalpana Murmu Soren, wife of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, is contesting as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate.
According to the Election Commission data, 58 lakh 23 thousand 721 voters of Jharkhand were to exercise their franchise in the second phase. In which there are 29 lakh 93 thousand 581 male voters and 28 lakh 30 thousand 085 female voters. The maximum number of voters in Koderma is 22 lakh 05 thousand 358. There are 16 lakh 89 thousand 926 voters in Chatra and 19 lakh 39 thousand 374 voters in Hazaribagh.
These three seats cover 7 districts and 16 assembly constituencies of the state. There are 54 candidates in the fray for these three Lok Sabha seats. There are 22 candidates from Chatra, 17 from Hazaribagh and 15 from Koderma
6705 centers were set up for voting in three Lok Sabha seats Chatra, Hazaribagh and Koderma. Of these, 575 are in urban areas and 6130 in rural areas. This time all the booths have been made like model booths. Of these, 36 booths were made unique. Where the district administration had made artwork on the theme of their area. Out of these, 73 polling stations were operated by women. Besides, PWD personnel are deployed at 13 polling booths. The Election Commission monitored the voting through webcasting from all the polling stations. For this, 6705 4D cameras were installed.
In the contest for all the three Lok Sabha seats, the direct fight is likely between the JMM-led ruling alliance and the BJP-led opposition in Jharkhand.
In the Koderma Lok Sabha seat, Union Minister and BJP candidate Annapurna Devi has locked horns with Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation nominee Vinod Singh, an MLA from Bagodar assembly constituency.
In Hazaribag seat, a direct fight is between the BJP's Manish Jaiswal and Congress' Jai Prakash Bhai Patel, who recently switched from BJP. Both the candidates are currently the MLAs.
Chatra is also heading for a direct contest between BJP’s Kalicharan Singh, who was given ticket instead of sitting MP Sunil Kumar Singh, and Congress's KN Tripathi.
Apart from the polling in Lok Sabha constituencies, the by-poll for Gandey assembly, with 3.15 lakh voters, is also slated for Monday. Gandey is hot seat as Kalpana Soren, the wife of jailed former state CM Hemant Soren is contesting the elections. Apart from her 10 more candidates are in the fray.
Gandey assembly seat fell vacant after the resignation of Sarfaraz Ahmad, who was recently elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed. BJP has fielded Dilip Kumar Verma against Kalpana.
