Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) Rajiv Kumar with the two newly-appointed Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar at the poll dates press conference recently.
Credit: X/@PTI_News
Election to 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand will be held in four phases, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Saturday.
While Singhbhum, Khunti and Lohardaga and Palamu will vote on May 13, Chatra, Koderma and Hazaaribag will go to the polls on May 20. Polling for Giridih, Dhanbad, Ranchi and Jamshedpur will be held on May 25, and Rajmahal, Dumka and Godda will vote on June 1.
The counting of votes will be done on June 4, and the results will be announced on the same date.
There are more than 2.55 crore voters in the state -- 1.29 crore male, 1.25 crore female and 407 transgenders. Among them 22 lakh constitute the first-time voters, and 3.6 lakh are people with disability.
Five of the 14 Lok Sabha seats are reserved for STs and one for SCs.
"Adequate security forces will be deployed in all 29,521 polling stations in the state to conduct free and fair polls. Besides, arrangements are also being made to monitor all polling stations through webcasting," Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Helicopters will be used for the movement of polling personnel in difficult terrains, he said.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP won 11 seats in the state, while its ally AJSU Party bagged one. The Congress and the JMM secured one seat each.
(With PTI inputs)