Source – hindustantimes.com
Voting in the high-stakes fourth phase of Jharkhand assembly polls concluded on Monday. Voters came out in large number across 15 assembly constituencies, registering a 62.46% turnout, a marginal decline of 2.12% over 2014 assembly polls.
This phase will decide the fate of 221 candidates, including two ministers and 12 sitting legislators. Chief electoral officer (CEO) Vinay Kumar Choubey said, “Polling was peaceful with no untoward incident recorded from any constituency.”
He said the final voter turnout might change once the data is compiled in a couple of days. With this phase, polls have been completed in 65 of the 81 assembly seats in Jharkhand. Voters defied Maoists’ poll boycott call in a few pockets of Dhanbad and Giridih districts. Shankar Mahto, a voter in Sindri assembly constituency, said, “Polling started at 7am but the EVM was defunct by 9am. It was restored around 10.30am.”
Poll boycott was reported from a few booths in Jamua constituency under Giridih district. “We received reports of poll boycott from a few booths but it is being verified,” Choubey said.
The fate of several prominent candidates, including revenue and land reform minister Amar Kumar Bauri, labour, employment and training minister Raj Paliwar and former ministers Mannan Mallick, Haji Hussain Ansari and Mathura Mahto was sealed in the EVMs.
The phase is crucial for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it had won 11 seats of the 15 in the 2014 assembly polls. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), AJSU Party, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) and Marxist Co-ordination Committee (MCC) bagged a seat each in the last assembly polls.
However, the BJP is confident of making clean sweep in the penultimate phase of Jharkhand polls. “We will win all 15 seats in the phase,” said BJP state spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo.
Likewise, Kishor Nath Shahdeo, spokesperson of the Congress, which allied with JMM and RJD, said, “We are giving good fight on 12 seats and hoping to win them all.” He said, “Voters’ aspirations remained unfulfilled in the past five years, there is resentment against the BJP. So, people have turned up to show their support for alliance candidates.”