- विज्ञापन -
Jharkhand: Counting for the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly commenced today at 8 a.m. in Ranchi, with results expected by 5 p.m. Initial trends should start appearing around 9:30 a.m. The counting process began with the unlocking of strongrooms, attended by election returning officers, special Election Commission observers, and candidate representatives.
Votes from Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and postal ballots were transferred to counting tables at 7:30 a.m., all under tight security and monitored by CCTV for transparency.
To form a government, a party or coalition needs at least 41 seats. In the 2019 elections, the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition, led by Hemant Soren, won 47 seats. This year, the primary contest is between the NDA and INDIA alliance.
Within the NDA, the BJP contested 68 seats, the AJSU Party 10, the JD(U) 2, and LJP (R) 1. The INDIA coalition includes the JMM contesting 43 seats, Congress 30, RJD 6, and CPI (ML) 4. There are also competitive contests among alliance partners in certain constituencies like Bishrampur, Chhatarpur, and Dhanwar.
The fate of 1,211 candidates will be decided today, including key personalities such as sitting Chief Minister Hemant Soren (Barhait), former Chief Minister Champai Soren (Saraikela), state BJP president and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi (Rajdhanwar), Leader of Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri (Chandankiyari), Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato (Nala), and JMM campaigner Kalpana Soren (Gandey). Other notable contenders are ministers from Hemant Soren’s government and family members of former chief ministers.
State Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar indicated that the number of counting rounds would differ by constituency, with at least 13 rounds in Torpa and Littipara, and up to 27 rounds in Chatra. While the deadline for wrapping up the election process is November 25, there are efforts to complete it by November 24.
Polling for the elections occurred in two phases on November 13 and 20, with a voter turnout of 67.74% (excluding postal votes), amounting to 17,681,007 voters, and women voters slightly surpassing men by 551,797.
