CM Hemant Soren and former CM Babu Lal Marandi
ranchi: The stage is set for the second and final round of the election battle in Jharkhand on Wednesday. Voting for the 38 seats will begin at 7 in the morning. While the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance will try to retain power in Jharkhand, the BJP-led NDA will try to form the government. The final phase will decide the electoral fate of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren and opposition leader Amar Kumar Bauri (BJP), besides over 500 other candidates.
Babulal Marandi and President Ravindra Nath Mahato are also in the election fray.
Apart from CM Soren and his wife, candidates in this round also include BJP state president and former CM Babulal Marandi, Assembly Speaker Ravindra Nath Mahato (JMM) and BJP ally AJSU party chief Sudesh Mahato .
Voting will take place until 5 p.m.
According to the information, voting will begin at 7 a.m. on Wednesday at 14,218 polling stations and will continue until 5 p.m. Voting in 31 of these polling stations will end at 4:00 p.m. A total of 1.23 million voters, including 60.79 lakh women, are eligible to vote on Wednesday. A total of 528 candidates (472 men, 55 women and one transgender) are in the running. Of the 38 seats where voting will be held in the final round, eighteen are in the Santhal Pargana region, which includes six districts: Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Sahibganj and Pakur.
BJP-JMM raised these issues
The JMM-led alliance is trying to retain power on the basis of its welfare schemes, while the BJP has made inroads in the elections by raising issues of Hindutva, infiltration from Bangladesh and corruption in the current government. On the other hand, the government in power tried to attract voters by promising social assistance plans.
Chief Electoral Officer K.Ravi Kumar said all preparations for voting have been completed and polling personnel have been sent to all polling stations. He said since the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, illegal materials and cash worth about Rs 200 million have been seized. Kumar said 90 cases related to violation of model code of conduct were registered.
Input-PTI
