For the first time in the history of Jharkhand, electors of an Assembly constituency will vote simultaneously for both the state Assembly and Parliament on May 20.

“Simultaneous polling will be held for the first time in the state when byelection for Gandey Assembly constituency will be held on the same day,” the state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) K. Ravi Kumar said. He said that the voters of that constituency would
also vote for choosing their MLA when they cast their votes for the parliamentary election of the Koderma Lok Sabha seat.

The bypoll for the Gandey Assembly seat became necessary as it fell vacant following the resignation of the JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad on December 31, 2023.

Though Ahmad had mentioned the reason for his resignation as personal, it
was widely believed that he
resigned to help Kalpana Soren contest the seat and to step into the shoes of her husband and former chief minister
Hemant Soren whose arrest by the Enforcement Directorate became almost imminent.

“It will be a four-phase election for 14 Lok Sabha seats of the state,” CEO Ravi Kumar informed while addressing the media in Ranchi on Saturday evening, adding the polling would be held between May 13 and June 1.

There are eight general seats in the state and five reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, besides the Palamau seat which is reserved for the Scheduled Castes.

The polling for Singhbhum, Khunti, Lohardaga and Palamau seats will be held on May 13 while that for Chatra, Koderma and Hazaribagh is slated for May 20.

The voters of Giridih, Dhanbad, Ranchi and Jamshedpur will cast their votes on May 25 while those in Rajmahal, Dumka and Godda will do so on June 1.

“The number of total voters in the state has gone up to 2.55 crore, 31.54 lakh more than that of 2019,” the CEO informed.

He added that the gender ratio as per electoral roll was 963 per thousand.

There are more female first-time voters than male voters this time, Ravi Kumar further said giving the break-up of the total 22,33,738 such voters as 10,93,718 males, 11,39,960 females and 60 transgenders.

There will be 29,521 polling stations in the state that will provide adequate facilities to the voters, particularly to senior citizens and people with disabilities, he added.

While Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat will have 22,54,445 voters, the maximum in the state, Lohardaga (ST) seat will have the minimum number of 14,27,022 voters.