Following three very successful phases till now, Jharkhand will enter the fourth and last phase of three-tier panchayat elections on December 12. But with most of the districts falling under this phase being affected by left-Wing Extremism in varying degrees, authorities will be on high alert to conduct peaceful elections in the hinterlands of the State.
The fourth phase will cover 41 blocks in 13 districts of the state, out of which, 10 districts are under the influence of Naxalism. Although no untowardly incident has occurred despite extremist outfits’ diktat boycotting the polls – courtesy attentiveness of security forces and interest of voters in rural government – state police is not leaving loopholes to allow any slip-ups.
With Palamu, Garhwa, Giridih and other districts with high number of sensitive booths observing rural government elections in this phase, adequate security detail has been assigned to keep away any interference with the democratic process. 30,979 security personnel in total have been deployed for securing polling booths in this phase.
As many as 16,340 security personnel have been deployed from District Armed Police and Home Guard, along with 14,639 mobilised externally from CID, Special Branch, para-military forces and more. Apart from them, 108 companies of Regular Central Armed Police Forces, comprising of 7,776 security personnel, have been stationed in districts to be covered under the fourth phase.
A total of 29,76,852 voters will exercise their franchise in 9,291 polling stations, 13 of them being mobile, in the final phase of the second panchayat polls conducted in the state. These polling booths will be set up in 5,180 buildings, out of which 2,064 have been classified as hyper-sensitive and 2,347 as sensitive.
This phase will be conducted across 748 gram panchayats, with 24,514 candidates in the poll fray for a total of 7,358 positions in Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The candidates will contend 5,631 positions of Gram Panchayat members, 746 posts of Mukhiya, 888 members of Panchayat Samiti members and 93 Zila Parishad members. 3,618 seats have been reserved for female candidates. 3,395 candidates have already been elected unopposed by far, whereas, no candidature was filed for 312 seats.
Two polling booths Pakur will go in re-poll on Friday, where two more wiin Deoghar and West Singhbhum will observe re-polls on Saturday.