Voting underway for two RS seats in Jharkhand with safety measures in place

Seventy-nine MLAs in the 82-member House are eligible for casting their votes. While the only nominated MLA has no right to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, two assembly seats fell vacant after Chief Minister Hemant Soren gave up Dumka and retaining Barhait, following state polls, and senior Congress MLA Rajendra Prasad Singh died last month, leaving Bermo constituency without a representative.

With precautionary measures in place owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, polling was underway on Friday for two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand, where three candidates are in the fray, including ruling JMM founder and former chief minister Shibu Soren. Congress leader Shahzada Anwar and BJP state president Deepak Prakash are the two other candidates.

Polling began at 9 am and will continue till 4 pm, with the Election Commission having made elaborate arrangements to ensure safety of all. Every MLA was being screened for body temperature and asked to abide by safety protocol such as wearing masks and maintaining physical distance, assembly officials said.

A team of doctors and health workers has been stationed on assembly premises to aid the legislators and carry out thermal screening. Seventy-nine MLAs in the 82-member House are eligible for casting their votes.

While the only nominated MLA has no right to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, two assembly seats fell vacant after Chief Minister Hemant Soren gave up Dumka and retaining Barhait, following state polls, and senior Congress MLA Rajendra Prasad Singh died last month, leaving Bermo constituency without a representative. Jharkhand ministers Badal Patralekh, Alamgir Alam, Champai Soren and Joba Majhi were among those who had exercised their franchise early in the day. Chief Minister Hemant Soren has also cast his vote.

Among others, BJP MLAs Babulal Marandi, Ramchandra Chandravansi, Biranchi Narain, Naveen Jaiswal, Ananth Kumar Ojha, AJSU party president Sudesh Mahto and his party colleague Lambodar Mahto have voted. The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday had instructed the state government to ensure that MLA Dhullu Mahto participated in the polls, as he was granted provisional bail by a Dhanbad court on June 15 for the purpose.

Mahto, who surrendered before the lower court on May 11 following a criminal case lodged against him, is a BJP MLA from Baghmara assembly segment in Dhanbad district. The polling for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand was necessitated as the tenure of Independent member Parimal Nathwani and RJD's Prem Chand Gupta had ended in April.

All three candidates had filed their nomination papers in March after the Election Commission issued notification for the Upper House seats. The election was scheduled to be held on March 26 but was postponed due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)