The counting for 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand started at 8 AM today. The political fate of 229 candidates will be decided today. In 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 12 seats, while two seats were won by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
Lok Sabha election 2019 results live updates
In Jharkhand, the key contest is between BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Left Front-Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) Mahagathbandhan.
Key contests
JMM supremo Shibu Soren is pitted against his disciple and BJP candidate Sunil Soren is Dumka, Shibu Soren has won from Dumka eight times and lost thrice. Union Minister Jayant Sinha of BJP is contesting against Congress' Gopal Prasad Sahu in Hazaribagh. Dhanbad Lok Sabha constituency is witnessing a battle between Pashupati Nath Singh of BJP and Congress' Kirti Azad.
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In Chatra, there is a three-cornered contest between Sunil Singh of the BJP, Manoj Yadav of the Congress and Subhash Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). In Lohardaga, BJP's Sudarshan Bhagat is up against Sukhdeo Bhagat of the Congress. In Palamu, the key contest is between VD Ram of the BJP and Ghuran Ram of the RJD. Another key contest will be seen in Hazaribagh where Union Minister Jayant Sinha of BJP is contesting against Congress' Gopal Prasad Sahu.
Exit polls predictions for Jharkhand
The ABP-Nielsen survey has predicted that Mahagathbandhan will 5 seats in Congress while the BJP will win 9 seats. The India TV-CNX poll predicted 8 seats for the BJP in Jharkhand, three for JMM, 2 for Congress 2 and one for JVM (P). According to India Today-Axis My India prediction, BJP is likely to win 12 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan is expected to win just two seats. Times Now-VMR exit poll has predicted eight seats for BJP and 6 for Congress and its allies. According to News Nation Exit Poll, BJP is expected to get 9-11 seats in Jharkhand and Mahagathbandhan may win 3-5 seats.
Chatra, Dhanbad, Dumka, Giridih, Godda, Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur, Khunti, Kodarma, Lohardaga, Palamu, Rajmahal, Ranchi and Singhbhum are the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Jharkhand.
In Jharkhand, voting was held in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election 2019. The number of eligible voters in Jharkhand are 2,20,18,634, including 1,15,43,613 male, 1,04,74,714 female and 307 voters of the third gender. The state recorded 64.97% turnout in fourth phase, 65.99% in fifth phase, 65.42% in sixth phase and 71.16% in seventh phase.
Voting in the Lok Sabha election started on April 11 and concluded on May 19. Counting for all 542 seats (the polling for Vellore was countermanded by Election Commission due to use of money power) is set to take place on Thursday.
