Lok Sabha polls to be held in Jharkhand in four phases

RANCHI: Lok Sabha polls will be held in four phases for the 14 seats in Jharkhand, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.

The Lok Sabha elections in the country will be held in seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. The votes will be counted on June 4.

Of the total 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, five are reserved for ST and one for SC. There are more than 2.54 crore voters in the state -- 1.29 crore male, 1.24 crore female and 413 transgenders. Among them are 22 lakh first-time voters.

Four constituencies -- Singhbhum, Khunti and Lohardaga and Palamu -- will go to the polls on May 13, while Chatra, Koderma and Hazaaribag will vote on May 20.

Polling will be held for Giridih, Dhanbad, Ranchi and Jamshedpur on May 25, and Rajmahal, Dumka and Godda will vote on June 1.

The rulling JMM of the state said it was ready for the elections.

JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharyya said his party had requested an Election Commission team to visit Jharkhand and listen to their grievances but that could not happen.

BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Aditya Sahu said his party is ready to fight the battle and has already announced candidates but the opponent parties are yet to decide on sharing of seats.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won 11 of the 14 seats in the state, its ally AJSU Party bagged one, while the Congress and JMM secured one seat each.

The last Lok Sabha elections were also held in four phases in Jharkhand.

While the JMM and its ally Congress are yet to name any candidate as negotiations for the sharing of seats are still continuing, the BJP has announced candidates for 11 of the 14 constituencies.

Of the 11, four are new candidates -- Geeta Koda who switched over from the Congress, Rajya Sabha MP Samir Oraon, Tala Marandi and Manish Jaiswal.

The seven other candidates will seek re-election from their respective constituencies. They include Union ministers Arjun Munda (Khunti ST) and Annapurna Devi (Koderma).