Ranchi: Jharkhand recorded 29.19 percent voting till 11 a.m. in the fifth and final phase of polling on Friday for 16 Assembly constituencies, an official said.
The polling began at 7 a.m. for 16 seats located in Santhal Pargana region of the state. The highest voting has been recorded at Maheshpur seat with 38.40 percent.
There are a total of 237 candidates including 29 women aspirants whose fate will be decided by 40,05,287 voters. More than 35,000 security forces have been deployed to ensure peaceful polling.
The polling started late at two polling booths due to technical issues in Electronic Voting Machines.
Among the 16 seats, seven are reserved for Scheduled Tribes including Borio, Barnet, Littipada, Mahespur, Shikaripada, Dumka and Jama while others including Rajmahal, Pakur, Nala, Jamtara, Jarmundi, Mahgama, Poriyahaat, Sarath and Godda are in general category. A maximum of 26 candidates was in the Jarmundi seat while only seven candidates are in the race for Poriyahaat seat.
The 16 seats are spread across Sahebganj, Pakur, Dumka, Jamtara, Deoghar and Godda districts. Among these seat voting will be held on five seats – Borio, Barnet, Littipada, Mahespur, and Shikaripada till 3 p.m. and in the remaining 11 seat voting will conclude at 5 p.m.
The key candidates include state ministers Raj Paliwar, Louis Marandi and Randhir Singh.
Chief ministerial candidate of Congress, JMM and RJD, Hemant Soren is contesting polls from Dumka and Barnet.
On 13 seats, there is a direct fight between BJP and the JMM, Congress, and RJD alliance and on the rest of the seats, the contest is triangular.
