In the first phase of Jharkhand assembly elections held in the year 2024, polling for 43 assembly constituencies peacefully concluded on Wednesday, November 13 with a commendable turnout of voters.
Talking to True To Life, first time voter Nitish from Ranchi mentioned how excited he was for the polling day and appreciated that this time more and more voters are stepping towards casting their vote for a right candidate. He also insisted people to prioritize voting over everything as this will be for the next 5 years in Jharkhand.
Dr. Neha Arora, who is additional chief electoral office of Jharkhand, shared the information stating that a voter turnout of approx 64.86 percent was recorded at polling stations in Jharkhand.
This year voting percentage has surpassed the 63.9 percent voting in these 43 assembly constituencies in 2019 Assembly Elections. Interesting part is that this year people were so filled with enthusiasm regarding voting for a suitable candidate that in certain polling stations, people were waiting in queue even before the culmination of poll hours.
In this first phase polling took place in 15 districts of Jharkhand, among which Kharsawan Assembly seat received maximum polling with percentage being 77.32. It is then followed by Baharagora with 76.15 percent and Lohardaga with 73.21 percent. However capital Ranchi witnessed the lowest polling with just 51.5 percent.
The area named Budha Pahad in Garhwa district, which was once considered as a stronghold of extremists, ended up with peaceful polling at Hesatu Polling station. Interesting fact is that this time was the first time when a polling station was set up in the Buddha Pahad area for Lok sabha election 2024, which helped residents in voting from their own village.
Also this time in Manoharpur and Jaganathpur assembly constituency of West Singhbhum district, voters did peaceful voting instead of threat calls and poster boycotting by extremists. During the first phase, security forces thwarted attempts to prevent voters from voting through blockades on way or boycott posters at the polling stations for Manoharpur seat and Jagannathpur seat.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar monitored the situation at over 15 thousands polling stations.
This time Jharkhand witnessed 100 percent tribal population voting at a polling station set in the Lakhaidih village for Potka Assembly seat (East Singhbhum district). Earlier these tribals had to travel almost 25 km from the main road and 4 Km through hilly route and dense forest from their own village in order to cast a vote.
A total of 683 candidates have their fate sealed in the EVM. According to the polling schedule, Jharkhand will vote in two phases, for the first one that is 43 constituencies is going to the polls on November 13, and the remaining 38 constituencies will poll on November 20. Votes will get counted on November 23 for both assembly elections. The battle line in Jharkhand is between the two coalitions, that is the ruling JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) which is led by INDIA bloc and the other is BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) led NDA.
True to Life Correspondent
Aparna Jha