Jharkhand voters to decide fate of key leaders as phase-1 polling begins tomorrow

New Delhi: Polling for the first phase of Jharkhand Assembly election and bypolls to 31 Assembly constituencies and Wayanad Lok Sabha seat will be held on Wednesday, an exercise that will decide the electoral fate of leaders like top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and former Chief Minister Champai Soren among others.

Forty-three of 81 seats in Jharkhand will go to polls in the first phase while the rest will see voting seven days later along with all 288 seats of Maharashtra.

Bypolls were scheduled for 33 Assembly seats but ruling Sikkim Kranti Morcha candidates in two seats in Sikkim – Soreng-Chakung and Namchi-Singhithang – were declared elected unopposed, necessitating voting only in 31 seats.

In Jharkhand, the JMM-led I.N.D.I.A. coalition is seeking to return to power even as it is facing a tough contest from the BJP-led coalition, which has raised the election pitch through an aggressive Hindutva pitch. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP chief JP Nadda and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held several campaign rallies where they attacked the JMM-led coalition alleging that they were allowing "Bangladeshi infiltrators" to settle in.

On I.N.D.I.A.'s side, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana Soren were main campaigners. The I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders promised a Caste Census, jobs and cash incentive for women among other things. 

In the first phase, one of the prominent fights is in Seraikela where Champai Soren, who left JMM to join the BJP, is contesting. Another interesting contest is in Jamshedpur East where Congress' Ajoy Kumar is pitted against Purnima Das Sahu, daughter-in-law of Odisha Governor Raghubar Das, who was a former Chief Minister.

The most prominent bypoll contest is in Wayanad, which was vacated by Rahul Gandhi and where Priyanka is making her electoral debut against CPI's Sathyan Mokeri and BJP's Navya Haridas. Congress is confident of winning the seat and the main challenge, they say, is to ensure that the winning margin is enhanced.4

Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Most of these seats fell vacant following sitting MLAs getting elected to Lok Sabha.

The bypolls will have no direct bearing on the governments but would be a test for the Congress and other I.N.D.I.A parties, as they are perceived to have lost momentum gained through Lok Sabha results following the Congress’ defeat in Haryana. 

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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