Jharkhand poll begins

Polling began for the six Lok Sabha constituencies of Giridih, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Singhbhum (ST), Khunti (ST) and Hazaribagh in Jharkhand under the second phase.

Jharkhand has 14 Lok Sabha seats.

Among 106 candidates, prominent are Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Karia Munda of BJP, Jayant Sinha, son of Jaswant Sinha, former Team India Manager Amitabh Chowdhury of JVM(P), former deputy chief minister, Suresh Mahato of Ajsu party and former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay of Congress.

The BJP, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM-Prajatantric) and the Bahujan Samaj party are contesting from all six constituencies

The Congress has fielded four candidates, the CPI two, CPI(M) one, Ajsu party four and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha two. BSP’s Durga Oraon opted out of the contest in support of the Congress.

Irrigation, underground fire at Jharia in Dhanbad, employment, jobs, health facilities, roads, electricity and prevention of migration are the important issues in the election.

In the total electorate of 85,18,979, men number 44,48,640.

Besides security personnel, the EC deployed 14 Expenditure Observers and three Police Observers to assist them.