New Delhi: The Second Phase of Elections to Jharkhand Legislative Assembly took place in 20 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) today. Polling was accordingly held in seven districts namely East Singhbhum, Seraikella-Kharsawan, West Singhbhum, Ranchi, Khunti, Gumla and Simdega. The highlights are as follows:
- 18 of the 20 ACs are naxal affected.
- 4,478 out of 6,066 polling stations (more than 73%) were categorized as critical; adequate security arrangements were made.
- 1,455 polling stations required dispatching polling teams two days in advance.
- 4 choppers were deployed to drop 346 polling personnel.
- This phase covered 48,25,038 voters, including 10,492 service voters and 62,565 PwD voters. 260 Candidates including 29 female candidates are in fray.
- 5,847 Volunteers facilitated bringing PwD voters from their houses to the polling stations. 2,079 vehicles were deployed to facilitate their transport. 2,934 wheelchairs were provided at the Polling Stations.
- The Commission put in place an elaborate mechanism to curb the misuse of money power. Total value of seizures across the State till today is Rs 16.0Crore.
- In three Assembly Constituencies of Phase-II (viz., 48-Jamshedpur East AC 293 PS , 49-Jamshedpur West AC 330 PS and 52-Chaibasa (ST) AC 284 PS), the newly introduced Booth App was used successfully. (Clips attached) This app enables capturing and providing real time information on number of voters in queue at the polling station to the voters.
- Approx voter turnout figures:
At the time of release of the Press Note, the voting in some of the Polling Stations was still going on. The final Voting Turnout will be known after the verification and scrutiny of Presiding Officers’ Diaries and other documents. As of reports received till 5.00 pm, the approximate voter turnout figure for all the 20 ACs of 2ndphase today is 62.40%. The final voter turnout in LAE 2014 for these 20 ACs was 68.01%.
- EVMs& VVPATs :
No complaint regarding EVM/VVPAT have been reported during the poll today. Across the 20 ACs today, as per figures received till now, only 0.20% BUs, 0.20% CUs and 0.69% VVPATs were replaced.
- Incidents on the Poll Day:The CEO/General Observers have reported the following incidents
- At around 9.30 AM, a scuffle broke out between RPF deployed at PS-36, Sisai AC, Gumla District and few villagers. As per report , few villagers tried to overpower a jawan and snatch his weapon. In the ensuing incidence villagers started stone pelting on jawans who then opened fire. In the incidence one Jilani Ansari (resident of Baghni) died due to bullet injury, while two other villagers sustained injury. Police officials from district police as well as RPF too got injuries. Repoll is being ordered.
- One arson incident happened in 52-Chaibasa when a bus engaged for facilitating transport of voters to relocated booth of 84- Primary School Jojohatu-1 to Middle School Pandavir. No injury reported.
- Today evening Naxals opened fire on one polling team returning back in Adki Block in Tamar AC of Khunti District. Search and rescue operations are on.
