Jharkhand Assembly elections 2024: Key dates and candidates

Photo for representative purpose
| Photo Credit: Manob Chowdhury

The Election Commission Of India (ECI) on October 15, 2024 announced the schedule for the upcoming assembly polls in Jharkhand. According to the polling schedule, Jharkhand will vote in two phases, with 43 constituencies going to the polls on November 13, and 38 constituencies on November 20. The votes for both Assembly elections will be counted on November 23.

The battle lines in Jharkhand are clearly drawn between the two coalitions — the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led INDIA bloc and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA.

Here are the key election candidates and dates for the upcoming assembly elections in Jharkhand.

Constituencies

Jharkhand has a total of 81 Assembly constituencies across 24 districts. Of these, 44 are general, 28 are reserved for scheduled tribes (ST), and nine for scheduled castes (SC). In the last assembly polls in 2019, the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won 47 seats whereas the BJP slipped 25 seats from 37 it held in 2014.

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Voters

Jharkhand has a total of 2.59 crore voters with 1.31 crore male, 1.28 crore female electors. There are over 11.05 lakh first time voters (18-19 years) and 1.14 lakh 85+ senior citizens and 3.64 lakh PwD (person with disabilities) voters registered in the state.

A total of 29,562 polling stations will be set up in 20,276 locations in assembly elections. While 24,520 of these will be in rural areas, 5,042 will be urban polling stations with an average of 872 voters per polling station.

For the first time in State Assembly Elections in Jharkhand, Senior Citizens over 85+ years and PwDs with 40% benchmark disability will be provided an option to vote from the comfort of their homes by filling application form 12D.

Candidates

A total of 683 candidates are contesting in the first phase, whereas the fate of 528 candidates will be decided in the second phase.

The prominent candidates in the first phase include former Chief Minister Champai Soren who is contesting for the first time as a BJP candidate (Saraikela), Odisha governor and former CM Raghubar Das daughter-in-law Purnima Das Sahu (Jamshedpur East) and Saryu Roy is contesting as Janata Dal -(United) candidate (Jamshedpur West).

Ranchi seat which is state capital of Jharkhand is also voting in the first phase where the contest is between Rajya Sabha member Mahua Maji of JMM and six times MLA C P Singh of BJP.

The maximum prominent candidates are in second phase in which the fate of Chief Minister Hemant Soren (Barhait), his wife Kalapana Soren (Gandey), his brother Basant Soren (Dumka), BJP state president Babulal Marandi (Dhanwar), Amar Kumar Bauri (Chandankiyari), Shibu Soren daughter-in-law Sita Soren (Jamtara) and AJSU president Sudhesh Mahato (Silli) will be decided.