Jharkhand assembly election kick starts with phase 1 polling along with Karnataka bypolls on 3 seats

Two Indian states Jharkhand and Karnataka entered into polls on Wednesday (Nov 13). While Jharkhand votes to elect 81 members to its legislative assembly, Karnataka will observe voting for three assembly seats in the bypolls. 

People started voting on November 13 for Jharkhand’s 43 assembly constituencies, spread across 15 districts. 

A total of 683 candidates are in the fray including prominent political leaders like former Chief Minister Champai Soren, Health Minister Banna Gupta, Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji, Geeta Koda (wife of former Chief Minister Madhu Koda), and Purnima Das, the daughter-in-law of former Chief Minister Raghubar Das.

In Karnataka, the fate of 45 candidates will be decided in the by-election in three key constituencies- Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur.  

The by-election in these constituencies was triggered after three seats were left open as JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, ex-CM Basavaraj Bommai and Congress’s E Tukaram were appointed as union ministers. They held the Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur assembly seats respectively.

The campaigning for the first phase of elections halted on Monday (Nov 11) after which voting started at 7:00 am on Wednesday. Among all the constituencies, East Singhbhum district has the highest number of 6 seats up for grabs, followed by 5 seats each in Palamu, West Singhbhum, and Ranchi districts while Koderma and Ramgarh districts have 1 seat each.

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The key constituencies in the first phase include Saraikela, Ranchi, Jamshedpur West, Jagannathpur, and Jamshedpur East. 

Former Chief Minister Champai Soren is contesting from the Saraikela seat. He joined the BJP in August ahead of the Jharkhand elections.

The primary contest is between the JMM-led Grand Alliance and the BJP-led NDA. Of the 43 seats in the first phase, the JMM is contesting 23, the Congress 17, while Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD has fielded candidates on five seats, with two of these candidates running against alliance members.

Within the NDA, the BJP is contesting 36 seats, while Sudesh Mahto’s AJSU has fielded candidates in 4 seats, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) in 2 and Chirag Paswan’s LJP (R) in 1 constituency.

Nearly 13.04 per cent voter turnout was recorded until 9:00 am on Wednesday in 43 assembly constituencies.

The voting in three constituencies of Karnataka began at 7:00 am this morning and is expected to go on till around 6:00 pm. 

More than seven lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in about 770 polling stations across the three assembly constituencies.

Key contestants here include Nikhil Kumaraswamy, JDS leader and son of Kumaraswamy, on an NDA ticket, and five-time MLA CP Yogeshwar from the Congress party for the Channapatna assembly seat. 

BJP’s Bharat Bommai, son of former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai, is set to face Congress party’s Yasir Ahmed Khan in Shiggaon. Lastly, E Annapurna, wife of Congress leader E Tukaram, will fight BJP’s Bangaru Hanumanthu in Sandur.

(With inputs from agencies)