Jamtara, which has gained notoriety as a cybercrime hub, drew attention on Wednesday when all the residents of a leprosy colony voted for the first time at a dedicated polling booth in Mihijham in the last phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections.
All the 57 voters afflicted with leprosy cast their votes at the Snehpur community building in Hansipahari village under Mihijham block, registering a 100 per cent turnout at the booth.
“Leprosy patients can’t cast their votes at regular polling booths because of the social stigma. This is the first time a dedicated booth was set up for them at the Snehpur community block and all the voters cast their votes on Wednesday,” said Jharkhand chief electoral officer K. Ravikumar.
Booth-level officer Ujjwal Kumar Mahato said there were 31 men and 26 women voters.
“This is for the first time a dedicated booth was set up for them under the ‘no voter to be left behind’ motto of the Election Commission,” Mahato said.
The booth was decorated with balloons and had all the basic facilities such as a ramp, wheelchair, electricity and drinking water.
Jamtara, which is one of the 38 Assembly seats that went to polls in the second and last phase, witnessed a close contest between two-term Congress MLA and cabinet minister Irfan Ansari and the BJP’s Sita Soren.
Irfan is the son of five-term MLA Furkan Ansari while Sita is the daughter-in-law of JMM patriarch Shibu Soren and sister-in-law of chief minister Hemant Soren.
The constituency has a mixed electorate comprising 30.10 per cent Muslim and 27.12 per cent tribal voters.
As of 5pm, Jharkhand recorded a voter turnout of 67.59 per cent compared with 67.04 per cent in 2019. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 23.
There were calls for poll boycotts over local issues at three booths, where voting began in the afternoon.
Angered over the lack of roads at Bachha village in Mandro block under the Borio Assembly constituency in Sahibganj district, the voters did not turn up at a booth till noon.
The villagers claimed they were being cheated for years in the name of development and sitting MLA Lobin Hembrom, who switched over to the BJP from the JMM, never paid attention to this.
However, local administrative officials held rounds of discussions with the villagers and persuaded them to cast their votes by 2pm.
Calls for a poll boycott were also sounded at booths 184 and 185 in Dulmi block of Ramgarh and Angara block under the Khijri Assembly seat.
The voters claimed land receipts had not been issued to them since 1991. Voting started around 10.30am following the intervention of senior administrative officials.
Voters at the Sirka Medhetungri panchayat in Angara block of Khijri protested the lack of roads at booths 7 and 8, prompting senior police and administrative officials to rush to the spot and defuse the situation.
