Jharkhand is geared up for polling in 43 of the 81 assembly seats in the first phase on Wednesday, when the electoral fate of 683 candidates, including former chief minister Champai Soren and ex-MP Geeta Kora will be decided, officials said.
Polling is scheduled to begin around 7 am in 43 assembly constituencies in 15 districts, and will continue till 5 pm.
However, in 950 booths, voting will end at 4 pm, though people standing in the queue at that time will be able to exercise their franchise.
While the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led coalition is seeking to retain power in a tough contest with Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance by riding on its welfare schemes including Maiyan Samman Yojana the saffron party has raised the election pitch through an aggressive Hindutva pitch, including infiltration and corruption by the current dispensation.
Top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP chief JP Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma held a number of rallies where they attacked the JMM-led coalition over corruption and infiltration.
INDIA bloc leaders including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his wife and legislator Kalpana Soren campaigned, promising welfare schemes and accusing the BJP-led Centre of "unleashing" all central agencies including ED, CBI and I-T against the opposition.
A total of 1.37 crore voters out of the total 2.60 crore are eligible to participate in the voting on Wednesday. Of the 683 candidates, 609 are men, 73 women and one of the third gender person.
Out of the 43 seats, 17 are reserved for general category candidates, 20 for Scheduled Tribes and six for Scheduled Castes.
A total of 15,344 polling stations have been set up for the first phase of elections. Of those, 12,716 are located in rural areas and 2,628 in urban areas.
Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar said all preparations for voting have been completed and polling personnel have reached the stations.
Mock polls will begin at 5.30 am, he said.
The responsibility of the entire voting process at 1,152 polling stations will be in the hands of women, Kumar said, adding that 24 booths will be manned by persons with disabilities.
He said since the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, a total of Rs 208.78 crore worth of illegal material and cash has been seized.
Till Tuesday, 58 cases have been registered over violation of the MCC, of which the maximum of 29 was in reported in Garhwa district.
Both the NDA and INDIA bloc pulled out all the stops to ensure their victories in the elections with BJP focusing on 'Roti, Beti, Maati' and the INDIA bloc trying to capitalise on "suppression of voice of a tribal CM".
The BJP's key promises include "driving out infiltrators", implementing Uniform Civil Code, Rs 2,100 per month to every woman and 5 lakh employment opportunities for the youth.
The JMM, in order to counter BJP's 'Gogo Didi' scheme of providing Rs 2,100 financial assistance to women per month, promised to give Rs 2,500, besides 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs, bringing domicile policy based on 1932 as the cut-off year for land records, implementation of Sarna Dharma Code, and hiking reservations for the OBC, SC and ST communities to 27 per cent, 12 per cent, and 28 per cent respectively.
Former CM Champai Soren, contesting on a BJP ticket in Seraikela, faces a challenge from former JMM's Ganesh Mahli. BJP's Geeta Kora, wife of former chief minister Madhu Koda, will lock horns with Congress' Sona Ram Sinku in Jagannathpur.
Congress veteran Rameshwar Oraon will contest against AJSU Party's Shanti Bhagat in Lohardaga.
In Jamshedpur (West), JD (U) candidate Saryu Roy will lock horns with Congress' Banna Gupta. In 2019, Roy as an Independent, had defeated sitting CM Raghubar Das.
In Jamshedpur (East), BJP's Purnima Sahu Das, the daughter-in-law of Odisha Governor Raghubar Das, is contesting for the first time, against Ajoy, an IPS officer-turned-politician. He had represented Jamshedpur once as an MP.
From Potka, former chief minister Arjun Munda's wife Meera Munda is contesting against JMM's Sanjiv Sardar.
The second phase of elections will be held on November 20 while the votes will be counted on November 23.
In the 2019 assembly elections, the contest was close, with the JMM winning 30 seats and the BJP securing 25, down from 37 in 2014. The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won a comfortable majority with 47 seats.
Currently, the strength of the assembly stands at 74, with the JMM-led ruling alliance comprising 44 members -- 26 from the JMM, 17 from Congress, and one from RJD.
