Final phase of Jharkhand polls to decide Hemant Soren's fate

Ranchi, Dec 19: The fate of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren will be decided in the fifth and final phase of the assembly elections on Saturday.

The incumbent Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislator from Dumka is fighting both from Dumka and Barhet.

In Dumka, he will fight it out against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee Louise Marandi, while in Barhet he is up against BJP candidate Hemlal Murmu who was with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) till the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed two rallies for the fifth phase and, referring to the father-son duo of Shibu Soren and Hemant Soren, appealed to the electorate to end dynastic politics in the state.

The final phase of voting will see the last 16 of the total 81 assembly seats in the state go to the polls. There are 208 candidates, including 16 women candidates, in the fray.

Nearly 3,690,069 voters, including 1,784,846 women, are eligible to cast to ballot.

The polling will take place at 3,773 polling booths out of which 833 booths have been declared as very sensitive, while another 1,496 have been declared sensitive.

The voting will start at 7 am and will end at 3 pm.

Around 22,240 security personnel will be deployed in the fifth phase.

Of the 16 seats, seven seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST). In the 2009 assembly polls, the JMM had won nine seats and the BJP won on two.

Among other prominent candidates are Jharkhand assembly Speaker Shashank Shekhar Bhokta, Minister Lobin Hembrom, Sita Soren, who is the daughter-in-law of Shibu Soren and sister-in-law of the state chief minister, BJP national secretary Louise Marandi, Hemlal Murmu, former minister Simon Marandi and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha principal general secretary Pradeep Yadav.

IANS