Jharkhand Assembly Election 2019, Gomia profile: JMM fields Babita Devi against AJSU's Lambodar Mahto

Gomia Assembly Election 2019 | Located within the deciduous forests of Chota Nagpur Plateau, the Assembly constituency of Gomia will go the polls in the third phase of the  Jharkhand Assembly Election  on 12 December. Babita Devi, wife of former JMM MLA Yogendra Prasad, is contesting from Gomia. She had won the seat in the 2018 by-elections as a JMM nominee. Babita is contesting against AJSU’s Lambodar Mahto in Gomia, which is in Bermo subdivision of Bokaro district. By-poll in Gomia was necessitated because of the disqualification of Prasad following his conviction in a coal theft case. Following is a brief description of the Assembly constituency (as of 2014): Constituency number: 34 Voter turnout in last Assembly Election: 69.64 percent [caption id=“attachment_6615831” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] Demography: Located in Bokaro district of Jharkhand, Gomia Vidhan Sabha comes under the Giridih Lok Sabha constituency. As per the estimates of 2011 census, of the total 3,95,364 population 73.49 percent is rural and 26.51 is urban. The Scheduled castes (SC) and Scheduled tribes (ST) ratio is 12.33 and 20.53, respectively out of total population. Results in last three years: In 2014, JMM’s Yogendra Prasad beat Madhav Lal Singh of BJP by beat 55.25 percent of votes. While in 2009 polls, Congress’ Madhav Lal Singh won the Assembly polls with 31,540. Chhattu Ram Mahto of the BJP, in 2005 Assembly polls, defeated Independent candidate Madhaw Lal Singh by a thin margin of over 3,000 votes. Major parties in the fray The JMM, BJP, JD(U), JVM, CPI, SP, BSP and Marxist Co-ordination are the main parties from the seat. At present, the state is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in an alliance with the All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) under the leadership of Chief Minister Raghubar Das. The term of the current Assembly will end on 5 January 2020. In 2014, the BJP had won 37 seats, while its ally AJSU secured a win in five Assembly seats. Among the Opposition parties, the RJD, Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have formed an alliance for the polls under the leadership of JMM chief Hemant Soren. Soren is also the Opposition Alliance’s chief ministerial candidate. The BJP is hoping to retain power in Jharkhand following setbacks and winning fewer seats in both the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly election as compared to the 2014 polls in the two states. However, several of the NDA allies, including BJP’s current Jharkhand alliance partner AJSU, have decided to contest the 2019 Assembly polls on their own. Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) are also contesting the polls solo. Of the 81 Assembly constituencies in the state, nine are reserved for Scheduled Castes, 28 for Scheduled Tribes and 44 are of the general category. According to the Election Commission, the state’s population stands at 3.2 crore, of which 86 lakh are ST and 39 lakh are ST. The state has a total number of 2,08,52,808 electors, including Service Voters. As per the electoral rolls in January 2019, there are 1.18 crore male voters, 1.08 crore female voters and 40,336 service voters. The number of polling stations in 2014 were 24,803. After Maharashtra and Haryana, Jharkhand is the third state to go to polls since Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the Lok Sabha election with a thumping majority in May. The 82-member Jharkhand Assembly is being held in five phases between 30 November and 20 December with the counting of votes scheduled to take place on 23 December.