Jharkhand Assembly election live: PM Modi will address rallies in Khunti and Jamshedpur districts

The campaigning for the second phase of Jharkhand Assembly elections will continue on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing rallies in Khunti and Jamshedpur districts. The five-phase elections to the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly began on November 30 and will end on December 20. Counting of votes will take place on December 23. In total, 20 Assembly constituencies are going to polls in the second phase on December 7. 

On Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a public rally in Jamshedpur. He stressed that all infiltrators will be expelled from the country before 2024 Lok Sabha election. Shah made the statement while addressing a public rally in West Singhbhum in Jharkhand ahead of the Assembly election in the state. 

The BJP is seeking a second straight term and is contesting the Assembly elections alone with Chief Minister Raghubar Das as the party`s face. The ruling BJP is campaigning aggressively with Prime Minister Narendra Modi its main campaigner, while Shah and several other senior BJP leaders have also addressed rallies in the state. Contesting the Assembly polls in alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress is fighting 31 out of 81 seats in the state. The JMM is contesting 43 and the RJD the other seven. JMM leader and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren is the alliance`s Chief Ministerial face.

Here are the live updates:

03 December 2019

11:24 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two public rallies in Jharkhand on Tuesday (December 3), including one at Birsa Stadium in Khunti at 12.00, and the other at Gopal Maidan (Bishtupur) in Jamshedpur. 

11:19 IST

As many as 67 assembly constituencies in the state are "very extremely" to "extremely" affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had said.

11:17 IST

The tenure of the current Assembly ends on January 5, 2020. It will be the fourth Assembly election in Jharkhand since the state was carved out in 2000 from Bihar.

11:13 IST

There are 81 constituencies in Jharkhand, out of which 20 will go for polling in the second phase on December 7, while the counting of votes will take place on December 23. 

11:12 IST

On Monday (December 2), Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stressed that all infiltrators will be expelled from the country before 2024 Lok Sabha election, reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to implement National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country. Shah made the statement while addressing a public rally in West Singhbhum in Jharkhand ahead of the Assembly election in the state. Taking a dig at former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the BJP working president said that the Gandhi scion is worried about the infiltrators as he keeps on saying that infiltrators should not be thrown out of the country and they should be allowed to use the resources which are meant for Indian citizens.

11:10 IST

The Congress has released the list of 40 star campaigners which also include interim party chief Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, as it does not want to repeat the mistake it made in the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls, where its lacklustre approach cost the party dear.

11:10 IST

In the 2014 assembly elections, the JMM, Congress and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha had formed an alliance. However, the JVM has moved away this time. The Congress-JMM have aligned with the RJD this time. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP had won 37 seats, its then alliance partner, All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) five, while the JMM got 19, the Congress took six, and the JVM had eight. The six remaining seats were won by other parties. The BJP and the AJSU are contesting separately this time.