The fifth and final phase of voting for the assembly elections has begun in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand amidst high security after recent terror attacks in the valley and Pakistan.
While 213 candidates will be battling it out for 20 seats in the fifth phase of Jammu and Kashmir elections, Jharkhand will vote for 16 seats across six districts on Saturday.
In Jammu and Kashmir, this phase is important for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to accomplish its Mission 44-plus, a feat that will allow the saffron party to form a government for first time in the Muslim majority state, provided it opens an account in Kashmir.
However, political analysts believe that the chances of BJP forming the government on its own are very bleak as it has failed to woo the voters and make inroad in the valley.
It is a do or die situation for the BJP as the party not only has to retain 10 seats it won in 2008 elections, but it also has to completely sweep this phase to be in a position to be a part of a coalition government. The party had won 11 seats in the last Assembly elections.
All the top guns of BJP including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Jitendra Singh, Smiti Irani, Uma Bharati and star campaigners Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna Navjot Singh Sidhu campaigned for their party candidates to woo the voters of Jammu region.
On the other hand, Congress is leaving no stone unturned to retain all the five seats it won in 2008 Assembly elections in order to maintain its political relevance in the state. The Congress ministers who are in the fray include Deputy Chief Minister and state Education Minister Tara Chand, Sham Lal Sharma, Raman Bhalla and Manohar Lal Sharma.
Meanwhile, NC will seek re-election from two seats, PDP from one while two Independent MLAs are seeking mandate from their respective constituencies.
As many as 18,28,904 eligible voters will exercise their franchise at 2,366 polling stations set up across the three districts of Jammu region – Jammu, Rajouri and Kathua.
In Jharkhand, the fate of heavyweights including Chief Minister Hemant Soren will be decided in this phase. Altogether 208 candidates, including 16 women are testing their luck in this phase, an EC release said. Polling began at 7 AM and wil end at 3 PM in all the 16 constituencies.
Among the heavyweights, Hemant Soren, the JMM leader, is contesting from Dumka, apart from Barhait constituency, where he is facing challenge from former Morcha leader and BJP candidate Hemlal Murmu.
While the JMM has fielded candidates in all 16 seats, the BJP has put up 15 candidates. There are 12 candidates, including one woman, from the Bahujan Samaj Party, while the Congress has fielded 11 candidates, including two women. Other parties in the fray are CPI (four), CPI-M (six), NCP (two), JVM-P (15), RJD (six) and as many as 65 independent candidates, besides nominees of several registered parties.
Nala has a maximum 19 candidates, while Litipara has the least number of eight nominees. According to the police, there is Maoist presence in only some pockets of Dumka and Pakur districts.
A total of 36,90,069 including 17,84,486 women voters will cast their votes in this round of the elections, with 2,31,148 voters in the age group of 18-19 years. Of the 16 seats, nine are general, while seven are reserved for tribals. Pakur has the largest number of 2,91,379 voters and Barhait has the least 1,85,679 voters.
There are a total of 4,448 polling stations (including Auxiliary-30) with 149 in urban areas. As many as 833 of them are hyper-sensitive and 1,496 are sensitive, the EC release said. The Election Commission has deployed 22,240 polling personnel, 16 general observers, ten expenditure observers, three police observers, one awareness observer and 1,050 micro observers.
The seats going for polls on December 20 are Rajmahal, Borio (ST), Barhait (ST), Litipara (ST), Pakur, Maheshpur (ST), Sikaripara (ST), Nala, Jamtara, Dumka (ST), Jama (ST), Jarmundi, Sarath, Poreyahat, Godda and Mahagama constituencies, spread across six districts of Dumka, Pakur, Godda, Sahibganj and Jamtara with some parts of Jarmundi constituency falling in Degoarh district.
Counting of votes will be taken up on December 23.