Ramgarh set for third bypoll in 50 years

Ramgarh: Ramgarh assembly constituency, which will go to bypoll on February 27, will be a high-profile fight and a prestigious seat it covers chief minister Hemant Soren’s native village Nemra in Gola block.
People of Nemra, including Soren’s family, are in the electoral list of the constituency. The district administration said they are preparing for peaceful polls in the constituency covering four blocks and 3.34 lakh voters. A total of 405 polling stations will be set up, they said. The seat was won by Congress of the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD mahagathbandhan in the 2019 assembly election. The bypoll was necessitated after Congress’s Mamta Devi, who won the seat in 2019, was convicted and sentenced to five-year jail last month in connection with a 2016 rioting case. Devi was accused of leading a protest against Inland Power Limited and the district administration when violence broke out. She is currently serving time in the Hazaribag Central Jail. Electoral roll wise, Gola is the biggest block with 153 polling stations to be set up in 100 identified buildings. A total of 1,16,853 people will cast their votes from here. The other blocks included Ramgarh, Chitarpur and Dulmi.
Deputy development commissioner-cum-officiating deputy commissioner, Nagendra Kumar Sinha, said a total of 3,34,167 people including 1,72,923 males and 1,61,244 females are eligible to cast their votes.
“There will be 405 polling stations set up in 233 buildings in Ramgarh constituency,” he said.
Ramgarh SP Piyush Pandey said, “Adequate number of security forces will be deployed in sensitive polling stations while checkposts would be set up in all entry points as part of the security measures for the bypoll.”
The February polling will be the third by-election in the Ramgarh assembly. The first one was held in 1973 after then Ramgarh MLA Manzoor Hassan Khan was assassinated in Patna during the undivided Bihar. His wife won the seat in the subsequent bypoll on a CPI ticket. The second bypoll was held in 2001 and was won by former CM Babulal Marandi. The seat fell vacant then after the demise of Shabbir Ahemad Quraishi alias Bhera Singh of CPI.