Ranchi: The Hatia constituency by-poll to the Jharkhand Assembly is being held on Tuesday amid tight security arrangements.
"All necessary arrangements have been made for the Hatia by-poll," said KK Soan, deputy commissioner of Ranchi told reporters on Monday. A total of 4,02,181 voters will decide fate of 29 candidates.
The polling will take place at 425 booths. Of these, 69 and 250 booths have been identified as `sensitive` and `very sensitive`. Around 20 companies of state and para-military forces will be deployed for the peaceful polling.
The polling began at 8 am and will close at 5 pm.
The key contest is among the BJP, the Congress, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU). The BJP and AJSU are partners in the the ruling alliance in Jharkhand.
The BJP, the Congress, AJSU and JVM-P have fielded Ramjilal Sarda, Sunil Sahay, Navin Jaiswal and Ajay Nath Sahdeo respectively for the electoral contest.
The Hatia seat fell vacant after Congress legislator Gopal Nath Sahdeo after suffering from a disease in 2010.
IANS
