Out of the 81 seats in the state, 43 constituencies are currently holding the first round of the Jharkhand Assembly elections. Up to 11 am, a 29.31% voter turnout was noted. Twenty of the seats up for election today are reserved for members of Scheduled Tribes (ST), six for members of Scheduled Castes (SC), and seventeen for members of the general public.
There are 683 candidates running for legislative seats in 43 constituencies. To maintain peace and protect the polling process, more than 200 security force companies have been positioned at strategic places, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI). 73 women are among the 683 candidates vying for seats in this phase.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, will compete with the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a part of the opposition’s INDIA group. In the Jharkhand Assembly elections, the JMM, Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and the Left parties comprise the INDIA bloc, while the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) and Janata Dal (United) are the NDA’s partners.
The JMM, led by Hemant Soren, took 30 seats in the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly election, while the BJP took 25 and the Congress took 16. Soren served as the Chief Minister of the government, which was created by a coalition of the JMM, Congress, and Rashtriya Janata Dal.
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, daughter-in-law of former Chief Minister Raghubar Das, are among the important politicians whose fate will be determined in the first round of Jharkhand elections.
Champai Soren, a BJP candidate and former chief minister, is running for the Seraikella seat, which he has occupied since 2005. Champai took over as Chief Minister in January 2024 following the arrest of Hemant Soren. He is currently up against Ganesh Mahli of JMM.
In Jagannathpur, Congressman Sona Ram Sinku is facing off against BJP candidate Geeta Koda, the wife of former chief minister Madhu Koda. Mahua Maji, a Rajya Sabha MP from the JMM, is running against CP Singh of the BJP for the Ranchi seat.
Purnima Das Sahu, the daughter-in-law of former Jharkhand chief minister and current governor of Odisha Raghubar Das, is running against Congress candidate Ajoy Kumar in Jamshedpur East. In Jamshedpur West, JD(U) leader Saryu Roy, who beat former chief minister Raghubar Das in 2019, will take against Congress state health minister Banna Gupta.
With 15,344 polling places set up throughout the state, voting will begin in 43 constituencies at 7 a.m. Of them, 2,628 are in cities and 12,716 are in rural regions. With the exception of 950 places, where polling will close at 4 pm, voting will normally end by 5 pm. Voters will still be able to cast ballots, though, if they are already in queue by closure time.
The poll body has said that 1,152 polling stations will be managed exclusively by women, and 24 stations will be staffed by handicapped personnel. Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar, while speaking to reporters, said that since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect, authorities have seized illegal goods and cash worth Rs 179.14 crore, and 54 cases of alleged violations have been registered.
