13.84% voting recorded in Jharkhand (9 a.m.)

Jharkhand recorded 13.84 per cent polling till 9 a.m. for the three Lok Sabha seats on Sunday, an election official said.

According to Election Commission data, voter turnout was highest in Godda with 16.51 per cent, followed by Dumka and Rajmahal with 13.87 and 10.67 per cent, respectively.

Voting began at 7 a.m. in 6,258 polling booths. It will end at 4 p.m.

Rajmahal and Dumka are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST).

There are a total of 42 candidates are in the fray whose fate will be decided by 45,64,681 lakh voters.

Prominent candidates include Vijay Hansda of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Hemlal Murmu of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both contesting from Rajmahal; and Shibu Soren of the JMM and Sunil Soren of BJP from Dumka.

In the Godda seat, Pradeep Yadav of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrikis pitted against sitting BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.

--IANS

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