Voting for first phase of Jharkhand polls begins

Ranchi, Nov 25: The first of the five phase assembly polls in Jharkhand began on Wednesday, Nov 25 morning at 7 am amid tight security.

470 candidates including 194 independents are battling it out in 26 out of the 81 assembly seats which are up for polls in the first phase.

State police and paramilitary forces have been deployed across the state and are put on high alert as Naxals have reportedly pasted posters in the state calling for boycott of polls.

The big names in the fray for the 26 assembly-seats include Jharkhand Bharatiya Janta Party President Raghubar Das, state Janta Dal-United president Jaleshwar Mahto and state Congress president Pradeep Balmuchu.

Apart from JMM, the rival fronts Congress-JVM and the BJP-JD(U) are contesting all the seats, while RJD, CPI, CPI(ML) and CPM are contesting few of the seats.

Even though there will be a close contest between the contenders and the parties, experts predict that no one party will achieve a clean sweep.

OneIndia News