Jharkhand polls: Himanta Biswa Sarma meets BJP workers to address objections over Chaibasa candidate

Chaibasa (Jharkhand) [India], October 30 (ANI): In a bid to resolve internal disagreements ahead of the Jharkhand assembly elections, Assam Chief Minister and BJP co-in-charge of polls, Himanta Biswa Sarma, met with party workers on Wednesday who had earlier raised objections to the party’s candidate from the Chaibasa seat.

Sarma met with workers opposing the nomination of Geeta Balmuchu from the Chaibasa constituency.

After the meeting, he said that the workers were not upset and would work together moving forward. “They are not upset… They will all work together,” Sarma said.

Chaibasa, a Scheduled Tribe-reserved seat, will see a contest between BJP’s Geeta Balmuchu and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) incumbent MLA Deepak Birua.

Earlier in the day, Sarma expressed confidence in the BJP’s standing in Jharkhand saying, “Our party is in a very strong position… We will fight the elections well, and this time, we will try to win all the seats in Chaibasa.”

He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Chaibasa on November 4 to campaign.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has issued strict instructions for stepping up the efforts to curb the inflow of inducements, including cash, liquor, narcotics, precious metals, and other freebies to the poll-bound states ahead of the elections.

So far, Rs 345 crores worth of seizures have been made from the announcement of the elections till date with over Rs 114 crores worth of seizures in Jharkhand and Rs 175 crores in Maharashtra, and the remaining seizures from the by-election bound states in the country. Seizures so far have already surpassed 2019 Assembly election seizures in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, which were a total of Rs 122.67 crore.

Elections for 81 seats in the Jharkhand Assembly will be conducted in two phases on November 13 and November 20, with the counting of votes scheduled for November 23.

Notably, a total of 2.60 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in Jharkhand, including 1.31 crore male voters and 1.29 crore female voters. The state has 11.84 lakh first-time voters and 66.84 lakh young voters.

In the previous assembly election, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 30 seats, the BJP won 25 and Congress won 16 seats.