THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, May 13: Voting for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 is underway today. Polling started amidst tight security arrangements at 96 seats in 9 states and one Union Territory (UT) from 7 a.m. and will continue till 6 p.m.
Besides this, Assembly elections are also taking place in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
In the fourth phase, 17.7 crore voters will exercise their franchise. This includes 8.97 crore male and 8.73 crore female voters. Out of the total 17.7 crore voters, 12.49 lakh voters are above 85 years of age. 1717 candidates are trying their luck in the fourth phase of elections.
The states undergoing voting
In the fourth phase, voting is taking place on 25 seats in Andhra Pradesh, five out of 40 in Bihar, four out of 14 in Jharkhand, eight out of 29 in Madhya Pradesh, 11 out of 48 in Maharashtra, four out of 21 in Odisha, all 17 seats in Telangana, 13 out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh, and eight out of 42 in West Bengal. Additionally, one seat in Jammu and Kashmir is also going to polls.
19 lakh polling personnel deployed in 1.92 lakh polling stations
A total of 192,000 polling centres have been set up for voting on these 96 seats. These polling centres have been staffed with 1.9 million polling personnel. For monitoring the elections, there are 364 observers and 4,661 flying squads. Additionally, there will be 4,438 static surveillance teams. In these Lok Sabha election areas, there are 1,016 interstate border check posts and 121 international border check posts.
Voting underway on four Lok Sabha seats of Jharkhand
Voting began amidst tight security at 7 a.m. on Monday for four Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand. Polling will continue until 5 p.m. on the Singhbhum, Lohardaga, Khunti, and Palamu Lok Sabha seats.
According to the Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar, a total of 64.37 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in the first phase in Jharkhand. For voting on the four Lok Sabha seats, 7,595 polling booths have been set up. In these booths, 30,380 polling personnel have been deployed. Webcasting is being monitored at all booths, and 15,000 4D cameras have also been installed.
According to the Election Commission’s figures, there are 14 candidates in Singhbhum, 7 in Khunti, 9 in Palamu, and 15 in Lohardaga trying their luck. In Khunti, the faceoff is between Central Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Arjun Munda and opposition alliance ‘INDIA’ candidate Kalicharan Munda.
Voting underway on five LS seats of Bihar
In the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections, voting is going on in five Lok Sabha seats of Bihar from 7 am. Voting will continue till 6 pm in Begusarai, Ujiarpur, Samastipur, Munger and Darbhanga Lok Sabha seats.
95.85 lakh voters will vote in the fourth phase of Bihar elections. 5,398 polling stations have been set up for voting on five Lok Sabha seats.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh is contesting elections from Begusarai. He is contesting against Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate Awadhesh Rai.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh had defeated former JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
