Battle for Jharkhand: Polls conclude peacefully for 15 seats in 4th phase with 62.54 turnout

Ranchi: Once again in Jharkhand, the voters have won over the diktats of the Maoists as they turned up in large numbers to cast their ballots in the fourth phase of the elections in the state which concluded peacefully on 15 seats in which average voter turn out of 62.54 was recorded.

Addressing a press conference here State’s Chief Electoral Officer Vinay Kumar Choubey said that polling on 5 out of these 10 seats including Bagodar, Jamua, Giridih, Dumri and Tundi had come to an end at 1500hrs while on the remaining 10 seats it came to an end at 1700hrs.

However, when compared to 2014 the overall poll percentage in this phase had declined by 2.12 percent. He said that in 2014 on these 15 seats the average voter turn out was 64.66 percent.

Among the constituencies, Chandankiyari has registered a maximum voter turnout of 74.50 percent while Bokaro had witnessed the minimum turnout at 50.64 percent.

Constituency wise the polling percentage at the end of the polls is as following: Madhupur 72.90 percent, Deoghar (SC) 63.40 percent, Bagodar 62.82 percent, Jamua (SC) 59.09 percent, Gandey 69.17 percent, Giridih 60.64 percent, Dumri 68.89 percent, Bokaro 50.64 percent, Chandankiyari (SC) 74.50 percent, Sindri 70.12 percent, Nirsa 67.53 percent, Dhanbad 52.69 percent, Jharia 51.96 percent, Tundi 67.54 percent and Baghmara 62.01 percent.

With the end of elections for the fourth phase, voting has been completed on 65 seats out of 81 seats in the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha. The remaining 16 seats of the Santhal Pargana division will go into the polls in the last phase on December 20.

In his address to the press, Mr Choubey said that it was a matter of great satisfaction for the commission that the polls for the fourth phase has concluded peacefully in the state without any untoward incident. Mr Choubey said that these seats have witnessed a turnout of 62.54 percent till the latest updates.

However, these figures are tentative and a final figure would be available in the next one or two days after all the EVMs reach the strong room and the dairy of the returning officers and form 17-C is matched. He said that during the day as part of the Mock-Polls and some snag few EVMs were replaced by the commission.

He said that a total 48 ballot units, 50 control units and 121 VVPATs were replaced during the day across these 15 seats. He said that as far as the Divynag voters are concerned their turnout in this phase was 92.34 percent.

Mr Choubey said very good arrangements were made for the Divyang voters as the commission had deployed 4039 volunteers, 2504 wheelchairs for their convenience and made arrangements of 3432 vehicles to ferry them from their homes to the booths and drop them back.

The CEO said that the booth app in this phase was used in four constituencies including Bokaro, Jharia, Gandey and Deoghar