Ranchi: Voting began on Saturday for the second phase of the Jharkhand Assembly polls. The polling which started at 7 AM will end at 3 PM. Whereas for the two Assembly seats, Jamshedpur East and Jamshedpur West, it will conclude at 5 PM.
For 20 Assembly seats, there are a total 260 candidates whose fate will be decided by 48,25,038 voters including 23,93,437 women and 90 third gender. Voting is taking place in 6,066 polling booths of which 1,016 are located in urban areas and rest in rural areas.
Police sources said that more than 40,000 security forces have been deployed in the second phase which is taking place in Maoist affected areas.
Of the 20 seats, 16 are reserved for the Schedule Tribe (ST) and one for Schedule Caste (SC).
Chief Minister Raghubar Das is contesting from the Jamshedpur East seat, where he is pitted against former cabinet colleague Saryu Rai and Congress spokesperson Gaurabh Vallabh.
Also in the fray in this phase are Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon, Urban Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda, Water Resources Minister Ramchandra Sahis, former cabinet minister Saryu Rai and state BJP President Laxman Giluwa.
Jailed Maoist commander Kunadan Pahan is fighting from Tamar Assembly seat.
(IANS)