Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar has appealed to the voters of the Lok Sabha constituencies voting in the fourth phase that they should consider voting as a matter of top priority and go to vote on May 13.
He said that even if someone does not have a Voter ID card or it is lost somewhere, they do not need to worry because if their name is registered in the voter list, they can vote even without a Voter ID card. For this, they will have to come to the polling station with any one of the 12 alternative identity cards prescribed by the Commission.
It was told that these alternative identity cards include Aadhaar card, MGNREGA job card, bank passbook/post office passbook with photo, health insurance smart card issued by the Ministry of Labour, driving license, PAN card, smart card issued under NPR, Indian passport, with photo. These include pension documents, service ID cards with photographs issued by the Centre, State or government undertaking, government identity cards issued to MPs, MLAs and Legislative Council members and unique disability ID cards.
Therefore, he made a public appeal that even if a registered voter does not have a voter identity card, he should still go to vote with one of the above 12 alternative identity cards.
Meanwhile, campaigning for the fourth phase of elections in the Country and first phase of Jharkhand ended in Singhbhum, Khunti, Lohardaga and Palamu on Saturday. No gathering, rally, meeting or campaigning through loudspeakers will be allowed in the concerned areas from 5 pm onwards.
However, the candidates will be able to continue door-to-door campaigning. The voting will be held in all four Lok Sabha constituencies of the State on May 13. CEO K Ravi Kumar said that the process of deployment of security forces at the polling booths has started. Adequate numbers of EVMs have been made available at the booths for voting work, he added.
These four seats cover 10 districts and 23 assembly constituencies of the state. Today Saturday is the last day of campaigning for this phase. There are 45 candidates in the electoral fray from these four Lok Sabha constituencies. These include 4 candidates from Singhbhum, 15 from Lohardaga, 9 from Palamu and 7 from Khunti.
According to the Election Commission data, 64 lakh 37 thousand 460 voters of Jharkhand will exercise their franchise in the fourth phase. There are 32 lakh 29 thousand 480 male voters and 32 lakh 07 thousand 938 female voters. Palamu has the highest number of voters 22 lakh 38 thousand 460. Whereas 14 lakh 36 thousand 351 voters in Lohardaga, 14 lakh 41 thousand 841 voters in Singhbhum and 13 lakh 20 thousand 808 voters in Khunti will participate in the elections.
Out of fourteen Lok Sabha seats in the State, these four seats are reserved for Schedule Tribes (ST) and Schedule Cast (SC). Palamu seat is reserved for SC and Lohardaga, Khunti and Singhbhum seats are reserved for ST. As soon as the election campaign ends, the candidates will go door-to-door and appeal to the people to vote in their favor. Union Minister Arjun Munda, former Minister in the State Government, Joba Manjhi and three sitting MPs are in the fray on all four seats of the State. The current MPs include Vishnu Dayal Ram from Palamu, Arjun Munda from Khunti, Geeta Koda from Singhbhum.
Only BJP candidates are in the electoral fray from NDA side. Two candidates from Congress and one each from JMM and RJD are contesting from the India Alliance. Arjun Munda from Khunti, Geeta Koda from Singhbhum, Sameer Oraon from Lohardaga and Vishnu Dayal Ram from Palamu are in the fray from BJP. Congress has fielded Kalicharan Munda from Khunti and Sukhdeo Bhagat from Lohardaga. JMM has fielded Joba Manjhi from Singhbhum and RJD has fielded Mamta Bhuiyan from Palamu.
