Ranchi: Voting today came to an end at for the by-polls to the Kolibera seat (Reserved-ST) of the Jharkhand Assembly in which voter turn out of 62.89 percent was recorded. A total of 1,88,534 voters including 95,0006 male and 93,528 female voters were eligible to
exercise their franchise across 271 polling booths and decided the fate of five candidates who are in the fray for these elections. The
contestants whose fortunes have been locked in the EVMs included Menan Ekka of the Jharkhand Party, Basant Soreng of BJP,
Naman Vixcel Kongadi of the Congress, Anil Kandulna of Sengel Party and Basant Dungdung (Independent).
The by-polls to the seat was necessitated after Kolibera MLA and former Minister lost the membership of the house after a Simdega court on July 3 awarded him life imprisonment in connection with the murder of a para teacher Manoj Kumar. The new MLA elected from the seat will have a tenure of just one year as Vidhan Sabha polls are due in Jharkhand in November-December 2019. In wake of the election, elaborate security arrangements were made by the district administration as a total of 29 companies of the CRPF, CISF, JAP, IRB and the district police were involved in the security arrangements. This is after 33 years that the by-polls are being held in Kolibera. It was in the year 1984 that following the demise of sitting Kolibera MLA Sushil Kumar the bypolls were held.
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