india

Updated: Nov 02, 2019 03:52 IST

Jharkhand, a state where no political party has ever won a simple majority, will vote in five phases between November 30 and December 20 to elect a new government, the Election Commission of India announced on Friday.

“The result will be declared on December 23,” chief election commissioner Sunil Arora said. Thirteen constituencies will go to the polls in the first phase; 20 in the second phase; 17 in the third; 15 in the fourth phase; and 16 constituencies will go to polls in the fifth phase. A new assembly has to be in place in Jharkhand before January 5 when the term of the current House expires.

Over 22.6 million voters are eligible to use their franchise in this election at 29,464 polling stations.

The current House is the first in Jharkhand’s history to see a chief minister — Raghubar Das of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — complete a full five-year term. Das is also the first non tribal chief minister of the state. The state has seen six chief ministers in the 19 years since it was formed. Of the six, two, Shibu Soren of the Jharkand Mukti Morcha and Arjun Munda of the BJP, have served three separate terms each.

Most of the 81 seats of Jharkhand assembly are likely to see a multicornered contest between the BJP-led alliance, the front of the Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Rashtriya Janata Dal and others. The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha of former chief minister Babulal Marandi, who was part of the opposition alliance in the Lok Sabha election, is likely to field candidates in all seats.

The BJP won 37 seats in the 2014 assembly election and its partner, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), five. The BJP, however, secured a majority when six MLAs of Marandi’s outfit shifted their loyalties. The BJP has 43 MLAs in the current House, two more than the half way mark of 41.

The BJP polled 31.8% votes in the 2014 assembly election, but its tally increased to 51.6% in the parliamentary election.

The BJP-AJSU alliance won 12 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The BJP expects to win the state again on the strength of a slew of welfare programmes that were rolled out in the past five years, and also because the Opposition remains divided.

“We delivered a clean government,” chief minister Raghubar Das said. “A double-engine government (same party at the Centre and in the state) is needed. We will win.”

Das will remain the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in this election.

The BJP expects that this will consolidate the non-Adivasi (non-tribal) vote in the state, analysts said.

“Raghubar Das himself is an outsider. How will he understand the feelings of the people? In this poll, people will throw him [back] to Chhattisgarh, where he belongs,” JMM executive president Hemant Soren said.