Jharkhand polls: final phase voting begins; Hemant Soren among candidates

Voting began on Friday in 16 constituencies in the fifth and last phase of the Jharkhand Assembly election, which will decide the fate of 237 candidates, among them two ministers and a former Chief Minister.

Seats and timings

Polling opened at 7 am everywhere. It was to end at 3 pm in five seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, Borio, Barhait, Litipara, Maheshpur and Sikaripara, and at 5 pm in the rest: Godda, Jamtara, Jarmundi, Mahagama, Nalla, Pakur, Poreyahat, Rajmahal, Sarath, Dumka (ST) and Jama (ST). All of them lie in six districts of the Santhal Pargana region.

Chief Electoral Officer Vinay Kumar Choubey said 40,05,287 voters were eligible, of whom 19,55,336 were women and 30 were of the third gender, and that adequate security forces had been deployed.

• There are 5,389 polling stations in all. In Naxal-affected areas, 396 were classed as critical and 208 as sensitive.
• In areas not affected by left-wing extremism, 1,321 stations were critical and 1,765 sensitive.
• The Election Commission arranged 6,738 control units, 8,987 ballot units and 7,006 VVPAT machines.
• 249 stations were model booths, 133 had women staff and 1,347 had webcasting.

Key contests

Agriculture Minister Randhir Singh of the BJP is seeking another term from Sarath. In Dumka, Women and Child Development Minister Louis Marandi faces JMM working president and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren, whom she defeated in 2014. As in the last election, Soren is also contesting a second seat, Barhait. His sister-in-law Sita Soren is defending Jama, while former Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi of the JMM is seeking re-election from Maheshpur. The BJP, contesting all 16 seats, has fielded sitting MLAs Ashok Kumar Bhagat in Mahagama, Anant Ojha in Rajmahal and Amit Mandal in Godda. Janata Dal (United) state president and former MP Salkhan Murmu is standing from Sikaripara.

All 16 seats also have candidates from the alliance of the JMM, Congress and RJD: 11 from the JMM, four from the Congress and one from the RJD. The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) led by Babulal Marandi, the BSP, the Lok Jan Shakti Party, the AJSU Party and Left parties are also in the contest. Polling in 65 of the 81 seats was completed in four earlier phases between November 30 and December 16, and votes will be counted on December 23.

What happened next

In the final result, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 30 seats, the BJP 25 and the Congress 16, and Hemant Soren became Chief Minister.

See also: JMM and Elections

Originally published on 20 December 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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