The key battles to watch out for – Firstpost

Jharkhand is going to the polls on Wednesday (November 13). As many as 1.37 crore voters will exercise their franchise in the first phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections, sealing the fate of 683 candidates.

Of the 81 Assembly constituencies, 43 will vote on Wednesday. The remaining will go to polls on November 20 in the second and final phase. The counting of votes will be done on November 23.

Let’s take a closer look.

Jharkhand Assembly election 2024

The first phase of voting in the
Jharkhand Assembly election will be held from 7 am to 5 pm. However, it will be over by 4 pm in some booths and those standing in the queue will be allowed to vote.

As many as 15,344 polling stations have been erected for the first phase, with 12,716 booths in rural areas and 2,628 booths in urban areas.

As per the Association of Democratic Reforms, 235 of the 682 candidates contesting in this phase are crorepatis. Kandomani Bhumij, an independent candidate fighting from the Potka (ST) constituency in East Singhbhum district, is the wealthiest candidate, with declared total assets worth Rs 80 crore.

Sushil Topno of the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha is the poorest contestant in phase 1, with declared total assets of just Rs 7,000. He is in the race from the Sisai (ST) constituency in the Gumla district.

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance emerged victorious, winning 47 out of the 81 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had bagged 25 seats.

This time, the JMM is contesting 43 seats, while its alliance partners Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Left parties have fielded candidates on 30, six and three seats, respectively.

The BJP is fighting 68 seats, while its National Democratic Alliance allies – All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), Janata Dal United (JDU) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) – are contesting the remaining seats (10, two and one respectively).

Jharkhand Assembly election 2024: Key seats

Of the 43 seats going to polls, 17 are reserved for the general category, 20 for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and six for Scheduled Castes (SCs).

The key seats to watch out for in the first phase are Ranchi, Seraikella, Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West and Jagannathpur.

The other seats that will be voting in the first phase include Kodarma, Barkatha, Barhi, Barkagaon, Hazaribagh, Simaria (SC), Chatra (SC), Baharagora, Ghatsila (ST), Potka (ST), Jugsalai (SC), Ichagarh, Chaibasa (ST), Majhgaon (ST), Manoharpur (ST), Chakradharpur (ST), Kharsawan (ST), Tamar (ST), Torpa (ST), Khunti (ST), Hatia, Kanke (SC), Mandar (ST), Sisai (ST), Gumla (ST), Bishunpur (ST), Simdega (ST), Kolebira (ST), Lohardaga (ST), Manika (ST), Latehar (SC), Panki, Daltonganj, Bishrampur, Chhatarpur (SC), Hussainabad, Garhwa and Bhawanathpur.

Jharkhand Assembly election 2024: Key battles

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren is in the fray from Seraikella. He left the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in August to join the BJP after being removed from the CM’s post “insultingly”.

As he fights on a saffron party ticket, Soren will face Ganesh Mahali, who is the JMM candidate. Interestingly, Mahali has defected from the BJP. Soren, who was with the JMM at the time, defeated him in the 2014 and 2019 Assembly elections.

In Jamshedpur East, Congress’ Ajoy Kumar is squaring off with Purnima Das Sahu, the daughter-in-law of former Jharkhand CM and current Odisha Governor Raghubar Das.

Kumar, who once served as the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Jamshedpur, is leveraging his image as a tough cop. But the task is cut out for him as Jamshedpur East is a BJP stronghold. Kumar is being viewed as the Congress’ strongest candidate for the seat in years.

JMM’s Mahua Maji is fighting the election from the Ranchi Assembly seat. She is taking on the sitting BJP MLA CP Singh. Ranchi is seen as a BJP bastion, with Singh having won the seat six times.

Maji, who holds a PhD in sociology, is the first woman from Jharkhand to be elected to the Rajya Sabha. In the 2019 Assembly polls, Singh trounced Maji by a margin of more than 5,000 votes. She had also lost the 2014 Assembly polls from Ranchi.

Saryu Roy is the JDU candidate from Jamshedpur West. He is pitted against Banna Gupta of the Congress. In 2019, Banna had defeated Devendra Nath Singh of the BJP by a margin of 22,583 votes.

Roy had won the 2019 Assembly elections from Jamshedpur East, defeating BJP’s Raghubar Das.

In Jagannathpur, BJP’s Geeta Koda is up against the incumbent Congress MLA Sona Ram Sinku. Koda is the wife of former CM Madhu Koda. She quit Congress to join the BJP ahead of the previous Assembly elections. Their other challengers are Jharkhand Party’s Laxmi Narayan Gagrai and Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha’s Lakshmi Narayan Laguri.

With inputs from agencies