The overall voter turnout in the first phase of the Jharkhand election on Wednesday, for 43 seats, was 64.8%, higher than 63.7% for these 43 seats in 2019.
Rural areas, mostly tribal belts in JMM’s stronghold of Kolhan division, saw brisk voting since the morning, while urban apathy led to low turnouts across constituencies overlapping Ranchi and Jamshedpur as 1.4 crore voters cast their ballots.
Maoist boycott calls fall flat as voters flock to Jarkhand booths
At 79.1%, Kharsawan (ST seat) saw the highest turnout, while Ranchi recorded the lowest turnout, 52.3%. Jamshedpur East and West segments settled at 57% and 56.3%, respectively.
“In Budha Pahad area in Garhwa district, once considered a stronghold of extremists, long queues, and peaceful polling at Hesatu Polling station signalled the deep penetration of democratic ethos… this polling station was set up in Budha Pahad area for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, allowing residents to vote in their own village,” Election Commission said on Wednesday.
Even as voters lined up outside booths, hectic campaigning for the second phase of the election for the 38 remaining seats, in the crucial JMM strongholds of tribal heartland Santhal Pargana and coal-rich Koylanchal, picked up pace.
The final phase of voting will be held on Nov 20. Early in the day, Odisha governor Raghubar Das voted in Jamshedpur (East), while chief minister Hemant Soren and his wife, Kalpana Soren, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, former Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and other VIPs cast their votes in Ranchi.
Former CM Champai Soren, who cast his vote in Seraikela (ST), said BJP would ride home on the issue of infiltration.
The INDIA bloc of JMM, Congress and RJD, and NDA, led by BJP Ajsu party and JDU, remained hopeful of a good show in the first phase. Of the 43 seats where voting was held on Wednesday, JMM holds the most seats (17), followed by BJP (12) and Congress (9). In 2019, BJP lost all 14 seats to JMM and Congress in the crucial Kolhan division, which comprises Jamshedpur’s urban seats and the iron-ore rich hinterlands of West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts.
“The farmers, women, workers and the youth sent a clear message today, that the Hemant Soren govt will return to office for another term. Specially, electors in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and other urban constituencies have shattered the myth that JMM is not liked by urban voters,” JMM said in a statement. BJP, on the other hand, claimed it would win two-thirds of the 43 seats that went to polls on Wednesday.
In 950 out of the nearly 15,344 polling booths voting ended an hour earlier, keeping in mind the threats from Maoists; polling remained peaceful with no cases of arson, violence or bloodshed being reported till the evening. Voters defied bandh calls by Maoists in Jagannathpur (ST) and Manoharpur (ST) assembly segments and turned up in numbers to exercise their franchise.
In Gumla (ST) seat, locals of several villages boycotted polls over unfulfilled demands for roads and bridges but later exercised their franchise upon assurances from the local administration. In Kanke, Congress workers raised an alarm when a BJP polling agent was found with a bag with Modi’s photograph embossed on it.
In Simariya (SC) constituency, a 90-year-old prominent folk singer, Saraswati Devi, died two hours after voting after suffering a heart attack. JMM and BJP workers clashed in Tandwa, in Chatra, while women turned out to vote in large numbers in Hazaribagh.
(With inputs from Abhijit Sen in Hazaribagh, Vishvendu Jaipuriar in Chatra, KA Gupta in Gumla and B Sridhar in Jamshedpur)