Ranchi (Jharkhand) : The Second Phase of Elections to Jharkhand Legislative Assembly took place in 20 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) on December 7, 2019. Polling was held in seven districts: East Singhbhum, Seraikella-Kharsawan, West Singhbhum, Ranchi, Khunti, Gumla, and Simdega.
The approximate voter turnout figure for all the 20 ACs of 2ndphase was 62.40% till 5 pm. The final voter turnout in LAE 2014 for these 20 ACs was 68.01%.Gumla district witnessed 69 percent of polling while East Singhbhum witnessed 56.4 percent till 6 pm. The fate of Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das ( Jamshedpur East, East Singhbhum) was sealed on December 7.
The day began with two incidents of violence the first witnessed at Sisai assembly constituency on Sisai booth at Baghni village in Gumla district when villagers clashed with security personals resulting in firing by the cops in which one Jilani Ansari person died while another was injured. The cops said that unruly mob of villagers tried to snatch away their arms resulting in firing for self defence. Jharkhand DGP Kamal Nayan Choubey confirmed that one villager was killed in the incident. However, Baghni village Mukhiya Prakash Chandra said that 1 person died and 2 were injured in firing.
In another incident of violence suspected naxalites seized a bus of election officials at Barkela panchyat in Chaibasa and later after removing all the passengers set it afire. The maoists alleged that voters were being brought over on the bus for bogus voting at Gamharia village.
As per Ranchi DC R M RaY, Tamar assembly constituency witnessed 68.1 percent polling while Mandar in Ranchi district witnessed 67.5 percent polling. Jharkhand chief secretary D.K Tewary stated that except for two incidents of violence the polls went off peacefully.
Eighteen of the 20 ACs are naxal affected and 4,478 out of 6,066 polling stations (more than 73%) were categorised as critical hence adequate security arrangements were made. Altogether 1,455 polling stations required dispatching polling teams two days in advance and 4 choppers were deployed to drop 346 polling personnel.
This phase covered 48,25,038 voters including 10,492 service voters and 62,565 PwD voters with 260 candidates including 29 female candidates in fray. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had put in place an elaborate mechanism to curb the misuse of money power and the total value of seizures across the State till December 7, 2019, is Rs 16.0Crore.
A police officer died due to heart attack while on election duty in East Singhbhum district on, according to police sources. Assistant sub-inspector Harish Chandra Giri, 44, was on duty at booth number 234 under Panchando cluster in Barsole under Ghatsila sub-division of the district when he suffered the heart attack, according Incharge, Baharagoda police station. Giri, who belonged to Azamgarh in UP, was taken to a nearby health centre where doctors declared him dead.
Naxals opened fire at a polling team returning back under Adki Block in Tamar AC of Khunti District. Search and rescue operations are on.
