Campaign for last phase of assembly election concludes
POLL FRAY 1,216 candidates trying their luck from 81 seats; all eyes on 16 seats going to poll in fifth phase tomorrow
RANCHI: The high-voltage campaigning for five-phase assembly polls came to an end on Wednesday with political leaders from different parties making their last-ditch effort to woo voters for the fifth and final phase polls scheduled on December 20.
Sixteen assembly seats, including seven reserved for tribal candidates, will go to polls in the final phase on Friday. The seats which go to polls in the final phase are Rajmahal, Borio (ST), Barhait (ST), Littipara (ST), Pakur, Maheshpur (ST), Sikaripara (ST), Nala, Jamtara, Dumka (ST), Jama (ST), Jarmundi, Sarath, Poriyahat, Godda and Mahagama.
“Campaign for the final phase polls ended at 3pm in five constituencies, while it concluded at 5pm in rest 11 constituencies,” said Vinay Kumar Choubey, chief electoral officer (CEO), Jharkhand.
The assembly elections were scheduled in five phases from November 30 to December 20. The counting of votes will take place on December 23.
A total of 1,216 candidates from 81 assembly constituencies spread across 24 districts are trying their luck in the poll fray.
More than 2.30 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the polls. However, the state witnessed voters’ turnouts at 64.22% in first phase, 65.85% in second phase, 62.42% in third and 62.54% in fourth phase polls.
In a bid to scale up the number of seats, BJP made all efforts in campaigning for five phases to woo the voters.
Party’s all top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, BJP executive president JP Nadda, Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, minister of road, transport, highways Nitin Gadkari, Union minister Smriti Irani, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and many others campaigned during 50-day-long state polls.
The Prime Minister addressed nine rallies in Jharkhand and campaigned for all five phases, while the Union home minister did more than a dozen rallies and JP Nadda addressed more than 15 rallies.
The ruling party had won 37 seats in 2014 assembly polls and formed the government with five candidates from the AJSU Party.
The alliance of three opposition parties — JMM, Congress and RJD — also left no stone unturned to unseat the ruling party. JMM is contesting on 43 seats, Congress on 31 and RJD on seven seats this elections.
All top leaders of three opposition parties campaigned for Jharkhand polls. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressed half a dozen rallies, while Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi did rally in the final phase on Wednesday.
JMM working president Hemant Soren did three to five rallies every day to garner people’s support, while senior RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav also did several rallies.
During the five-phase polling, regional to national level issues dominated campaigning of different parties. BJP banked on development, Ram temple, Article 370 and Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 to woo voters during campaigning, while the grand alliance made tribal land rights, job loss, hunger deaths and price rise poll issues.
Political observer LK Kundan, who is also the associate professor of political science department of Ranchi University, said poll issues diverted for ruling BJP over the phases, while the issues of opposition parties remained intact till the end.
“BJP spoke of development in campaigns for first three phases. Later, national issues such as Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Ram temple and Article 370 took the centre stage. The party got people’s clapping on such issues. But will these issues help BJP to get a majority could only be known on December 23,” added Kundan.