The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced elections in five phases in Jharkhand, thereby enforcing the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) across the State from 5pm on Friday. Elections for the 81 Assembly segments here will be held from November 30 to December 20, and the votes will be counted on December 23, the ECI said.
The voting for the five phases here will be held on November 30, December 7, December 12, December 16 and December 20, the ECI said. Jharkhand has a total of 2.26 crore electorates, the ECI added.
Except for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), all the remaining political parties in the State had requested the ECI to conduct a single-phase election in Jharkhand. The BJP, however, had sought elections in five phases citing security concerns. Elections in Jharkhand were held in five phases in 2009 as well as in 2014 Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that at least 19 of 24 districts in the State were Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected, while 13 of them were highly sensitive – a statement hinting at the reason for the lengthy election process here. “At least 67 Assembly segments come under the 19 Left Wing Extremism-affected districts in the State,” Arora said. As many as 13 constituencies will go to polls in the first phase of elections here on November 30. Voting will take place in 20 constituencies on December 7, 17 constituencies on December 12, 15 constituencies on December 16 and 16 constituencies on December 20.
As in the case of Maharashtra and Haryana, where prior to elections several Opposition MPs and MLAs crossed over to the BJP creating a buzz for the party, Jharkhand also witnessed the saffron party roping in six Opposition MLAs -- two each from the Congress and the JMM, one from Jharkhand Vikas Morcha -Prajatantrik (JVM-P) and one independent -- in October.
The JMM-headed Opposition is pinning its hopes on the anti-incumbency factors working at the local level along with price-rise and unemployment giving it a leg-up in the poll. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2014 collected 43 seats and jacked it up further by pulling in 6 JVP (P) MLAs in 2015 to sit pretty with a dominant majority.State Congress president Rameshwar Oraon claimed defections will not have any impact and the BJP will be crushed in Jharkhand. "They got much less than what they were expecting in Haryana and Maharashtra. The half-done exercise - to oust them from power -- will now be completed in Jharkhand," Oraon said.
"We will soon announce the formation of grand alliance comprising at least four political parties, JMM, Congress, JVM (P) and the RJD," said JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya, adding, "We are working to finalise the seat-sharing formula."
Continued on Page 4
5-phase Jharkhand polls from Nov 30
Bhattacharya claimed JMM's working president and the Leader of the Opposition, Hemant Soren, will be the chief ministerial face of the grand alliance."
The BJP, which currently rules the State in an alliance with the All Jharkhand Students' Union (AJSU), hopes for better results than it recorded in Maharashtra and Haryana where results were below par its expectations.
BJP Rajya Sabha member and election-in-charge of Jharkhand Om Mathur tweeted that his party and cadre had geared up for the Assembly polls a year ahead and already worked out Assembly-segment wise poll preparations. He claimed that the BP would lift the crown again with the party going past the record 65 seats in the State. Jharkhand Assembly elections will be the third full State polls since Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to a massive win in Lok Sabha elections in April-May.
Capital Ranchi will vote in the third phase on December 12, while Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West, Saraikela and Chaibasa will vote in the second phase on December 7, officials from the CEO’s office in Ranchi said. Later in the day, Jharkhand’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinay Choubey said that Government advertisements from all public places will be removed due to the enforcement of the MCC. Besides, the State exchequer’s money will not be used for any advertisement here on, he added. Choubey said that the total number of electorates in the state till date is 2,27,67,964. More than six lakh new voters were added to the electoral roll after the General Elections held here earlier this year, he added.
Number of men in the electoral roll in Jharkhand is over 1.18 crore, while 1.09 crore is the number of woman voters. A total of 248 voters are enrolled as third gender voters here, Choubey said.
A total of 29,464 polling stations were set up in 20,053 buildings to conduct the polling process in Jharkhand, Choubey added. Jharkhand is currently ruled by an NDA-led BJP-AJSU-party Government. In 2014, BJP became the first party to get an absolute majority in the tribal State.