Rural pockets of coal and steel belt in Dhanbad, Bokaro and Giridih districts witnessed higher voter turnouts in the fourth phase of Assembly poll held on Sunday. The polls passed off peacefully with no untoward incidents being reported from all the constituencies, officials informed.
Chandankiyari Assembly constituency of Bokaro district recorded the highest voter's turnout in Jharkhand; an impressive 74.49 percent voter's enthusiastically turned out to cast their rights, said Uma Shankar Singh Deputy Commissioner-cum returning officer Bokaro.
This time Chandankiyari Assembly constituency has seen a large upsurge in women voters' turnout. Praising for the women, Singh added, fifty-fifty participations of male and female voters was witnessed this time, "it's a good sign:"
Amid tight security and air surveillance polling began at 7 am for all the seats and will end at 5 pm in Dhanbad and Bokaro constituencies. However, the exercise ended at 3 pm in the rest of the constituencies. Voters who are in their late 80ies willingly came out to cast their rights in the rural parts of all constituencies.
Dhanbad district consists of six legislative Assemblies Sindri (38), Nirsa (39), Dhanbad (40), Jharia (41), Tundi (42) and Baghmara (43); while two Bokaro district constituencies including Bokaro (36) itself and Chandankiyari (37) and Dumri (33) of Giridih district were went for poll in the fourth phase of Sunday.
The naxal-hit Dumri (33), Assembly constituency of Giridih, under Boakro district witnessed 74.49 percent voter turnout in its rural parts only, informed Singh. Another naxalite hit Tundi of Dhanbad district saw 62 percent voters turnout while Sindri 65 %, Nirsa 63 %, Baghmara 58 % , Jharia 52 % while Bokaro the steel town witnessed lowest turnout of 51.11 per cent of voters.
Bokaro Assembly constituency ranked top in State for highest numbers of voters saw a lowest turnout. Despite SVEEP and other initiatives this constituency witnessed only 7 per cent rise in voters turn out which was 44 percent in last Assembly poll, said Singh.
There are 4,91,623 lakhs voters including 2,67,900 male and 2,23,732 female voters in Bokaro constituency but most of the voters from urban pockets did not bother to come out to cast their franchise, he said. Its' amazing that areas with higher rate of literacy had a lower voter turnout than areas with poor literacy rate across the constituencies, said DC.
"We tried our best to reach out to maximum number of voters but there was no such improvement observed", he said. Meanwhile poll passed peacefully. Twenty six VVPAT and two EVM machines were replaced after they got defunct in Bokaro constituency while one EVM machine was replaced in Chandankiyari assembly constituency, said Singh.