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The bitter campaigning for 43 of the 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand has concluded , ahead of the first phase of elections scheduled for November 13. The elections are an acid test for the JMM- Congress alliance and the Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Out of the state’s 26 million registered voters, 13.7 million will vote in the first phase of the Assembly elections. A total of 683 candidates — 609 men, 73 women, and one from the third gender — are competing for the 43 seats. These include 17 general seats, 20 reserved for Scheduled Tribes, and six for Scheduled Castes.
Over 15,000 polling stations have been set up for the first phase of voting, with 12,716 booths in rural areas and 2,628 in urban zones. The election preparations in the state are complete, with polling personnel already dispatched to 194 stations. Personnel for the remaining 31 booths ,
Voting will be held from 7 am to 5 pm on November 13, with 950 booths closing at 4 pm. Voters in line at the cut-off time will still be allowed to vote. Additionally, 1,152 polling stations will be managed by women, and 24 booths will be run by people with disabilities.
Prominent leaders from both the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and INDIA blocs have been actively participating in the election campaign. Notable figures include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, and others.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who leads the JMM, alongside his wife and JMM legislator Kalpana Soren, addressed multiple rallies to support the ruling alliance.
Significant issues in the current election include the BJP’s welfare schemes and the recent arrest and subsequent bail of Chief Minister Soren by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case tied to an alleged land scam. The JMM-led alliance has claimed that the arrest was politically motivated.
The NDA has focused on issues like ‘infiltration, corruption, and scams’, while the INDIA bloc has emphasised tribal rights and welfare.
