One-third electors vote in Jharkhand

Ranchi, April 10 (IANS) Around 36 percent of electors Thursday cast their ballot in the first six hours of polling for four Lok Sabha seats from Jharkhand, officials said.

Voting began in Koderma, Lohardaga, Palamu and Chatra constituencies at 7 a.m. and will end at 4 p.m.

Koderma witnessed the highest polling among the four with 43.5 percent till 1 p.m.

"As many as 1,193 video cameras will record the polling. Webcasting will be done at 271 booths and 1,189 still cameras have also been put into service," an election official told IANS.

A total of 5,647,736 voters will decide the fate of 62 candidates in the four constituencies.

Around 40,000 security personnel have been deployed, and six helicopters have been pressed into service, of which two will conduct air surveillance.

Votes are being cast at 7,058 booths, of which 2,134 are categorised as sensitive.

Maoist guerrillas have put up posters in remote villages of Lohardaga, Palamu, Gumla and other districts, calling for boycott of the polls.

In the first phase, the key candidates are former state police chief V.D. Ram, who is fighting on a BJP ticket from Palamu. He faces sitting member and former Maoist leader Kameshwar Baitha, who is contesting as a Trinamool Congress candidate, and Manoj Bhuiya of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Koderma and Lohardaga seats are also witnessing triangular fights.

In 2009, the BJP won two of the four seats, while one went to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the fourth was bagged by an Independent candidate.