Elections '24 Jharkhand in first phase of assembly elections today; Priyanka Gandhi Vadra faces bypoll contest from Wayanad
New Delhi/IBNS: Forty-three constituencies went into the first phase of Jharkhand Assembly Elections along with a host of bypolls being held across the country on Wednesday.
Jharkhand, which has 82 seats in total, has got 683 candidates in fray in the first of the two-phase elections.
The ruling coalition led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress primarily is taking on an upbeat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is aiming to return to power in the state in a bid to give fuel to the momentum it got after the Haryana victory last month.
The voting began at 7 am and little over 13 percent turnout has been recorded till 9 in the morning.
Seraikella, Jaganathpur, and Jamshedpur East are going to be some of the major constituencies that will be polled in this phase.
The BJP, which returned to power for the third consecutive term earlier this year, had raised the alleged infiltration of Bangladeshi Rohingyas into the eastern state of India as a poll issue.
The saffron party alleged the infiltration has impacted the regions with a significant tribal population.
Voters after casting votes in Jharkhand | Photo courtesy: ECI X handle
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda- three leaders of the top brass- slammed Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who is also the JMM chief, for allegedly clogging the state's progress by sheltering infiltrators for votes.
Downplaying the charges, the JMM claimed the union government had deprived Jharkhand of central funds, an allegation which is often levelled against the Modi government at the Centre by several opposition Chief Ministers.
Both the parties have dished out doles as poll issues with both JMM and BJP offering monetary benefits to eligible women.
In counter to the JMM government's Mukhyamantri Maiya Samman Yojana offering Rs. 1,000 to women every month, the BJP has announced its government, if formed, will provide Rs. 2,100 to all eligible women under the scheme Gogo-Didi.
In a bid to neutralise the BJP's offer, the Soren government has hiked the amount of its yojana for women to Rs. 2,500 per month, effective from December.
Among other promises made by the BJP are Rs. 2,000 for unemployed graduates and postgraduates per month, LPG cylinder for Rs. 500 along with two free cylinders in the festive month.
Along with the first phase of Jharkhand polls, 31 assembly seats in 10 states went into bypolls on Wednesday.
The byelections are being held in Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya.
The bypolls will be a test for the Congress and the opposition bloc INDIA after the grand old party suffered a massive jolt in Haryana, which retained its existing BJP government in October.
All eyes will be on Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the granddaughter of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, is contesting marking her poll debut.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on campaign trail in Wayanad | Photo courtesy: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Facebook page
Priyanka was named as the Congress candidate after her brother and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi resigned to keep his other constituency, Rae Bareli, that he won in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Last week, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused Priyanka of contesting the Wayanad by-election with the backing of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
He challenged the Congress to publicly declare that it does not seek support from the organisation, which is widely viewed as a Muslim fundamentalist group.
This statement marked a direct confrontation between Vijayan’s CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and Congress, the allies in the INDIA bloc.
Sathyan Mokeri of the CPI is running against Priyanka.
In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress will like to sweep all six bypolls to reaffirm its undisputed authority weeks after facing an unprecedented protests over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The TMC, which currently has five of the six seats going to byelections under its belt, is hoping for a clean sweep while the BJP is aiming to give a jolt to Mamata's regime.
The results of Jharkhand elections, all byelections along with Maharashtra polls will be declared on November 23.
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