Curtains come down on campaigning for 43 of 81 assembly seats in Jharkhand

Ranchi: Curtains came down on Monday on campaigning for 43 of the total 81 assembly seats in Jharkhand going to the polls on November 13 during the first phase of elections.

Star campaigners of both the NDA and INDIA bloc including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi and others canvassed for their respective party nominees during the campaigning.

A total of 1.37 crore voters out the total 2,60 crore are eligible to participate in the voting on November 13.

Altogether 683 candidates – 609 men, 73 women and a third gender person – are in the fray in 43 seats, Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar said.

Out of the 43, 17 seats are reserved for general, 20 for scheduled tribes and 6 seats for scheduled castes.

A total of 15,344 polling stations have been set up for the first phase of elections. Out of them, 12,716 booths are located in rural areas and 2,628 booths in urban areas.

Kumar said all preparations for voting have been completed and on Monday, polling personnel have been sent to 194 polling stations.

Polling personnel will be sent to the 31 remaining booths on Tuesday.

In the first phase, voting will be held on November 13 from 7 am to 5 pm. However, in 950 booths, the voting time will end at 4 pm, though people standing in the queue at that time will be able to vote.

The responsibility of the entire voting process at 1,152 polling stations will be in the hands of women, Kumar said adding that 24 booths will be manned by handicapped people.

He said since the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, a total of Rs 179.14 crore worth of illegal material and cash has been seized.

Till Monday, 54 cases have been registered for violation of the Model Code of Conduct.