Campaign ends for first phase of Jharkhand polls and bypolls to 31 Assembly and one Lok Sabha seats

Campaigning ends for Jharkhand Assembly elections and Wayanad Lok Sabha bypolls with high-profile candidates in the fray.

Campaigning ended for phase-I of Jharkhand Assembly elections as well as bypolls in 33 Assembly constituencies and the high-profile Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency of Kerala from where Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut.

Among the 33 Assembly seats originally announced to go to byelection in this phase, polling would be held in only 31 as in Sikkim, the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) has won two seats uncontested.

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In Jharkhand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah raised the poll fever on the last day of campaign.

While Mr. Modi launched an all-out attack on the Congress, the JMM and the RJD, Mr. Shah said if the BJP were to be elected to power in the State, a committee would be formed to identify and drive out ‘infiltrators’ from the State.

The PM accused the Congress of talking big but failing to deliver on its promises. He also slammed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for his remarks that the BJP had given “false guarantees” to people.

During the campaign, the BJP had claimed the JMM coalition government was allowing “Bangladeshi infiltrators” into Jharkhand, changing the demography in tribal areas, a charge denied by the INDIA bloc. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Mr. Kharge had raised the issue of caste census.