Dumka Assembly Elections 2019: The Dumka Vidhan Sabha constituency, reserved for a candidate from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, is set to vote on Friday, 20 December, which is the fifth and final phase of voting for the Jharkhand Assembly election. Former chief minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Hemant Soren and outgoing social welfare minister Lois Marandi of the BJP are in the fray for this bell-weather seat in the upcoming polls. [caption id=“attachment_6401651” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Representational image. Reuters[/caption] During a rally in the important constituency under the Santhal Pargana region of the state, Soren said
in native Santhali
, “The BJP is bringing its functionaries from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. A lot of heroes and heroines are coming to the state. Once the election is over, none of them will come and alleviate your problems. They will leave behind a lathait (strongman) in Raghubar Das. All of you know he tried to snatch your land by changing the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act.” Here is brief information about the constituency: Constituency number: 10 Total electors: 2,46,712 Male: 1,24,335 Female: 1,22,376 Transgender: 1 Voter turnout in last Assembly Election: 58 percent Polling stations: 232 In 2014, two-time MLA Soren had lost the contest in Dumka to BJP’s Lois, who
reportedly
won with 69,760 votes. Dumka is an important seat in the Santhal Pargana region of the state and is also considered
the JMM’s stronghold
. Political leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi also campaigned for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the constituency. In Dumka, Modi raised the topic of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and said that those who are protesting can be “identified by their clothes”. “People who are setting fire (to property) can be seen on TV… They can be identified by the clothes they are wearing,”
Modi said, without elaborating
. Past election results In 2005, Stephen Marandi, an Independent candidate won the seat in the first election after Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar. In 2009, Soren had won the seat
with
35,129 votes as opposed to Lois’ 32,460 votes. In 2014, however, Lois won the seat as the BJP candidate. With inputs from agencies
)