In the second phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections, 20 constituencies with 260 candidates go to poll. For security reasons, polling will commence from 7 a.m. and go on till 3 p.m. in 18 constituencies and till 5 p.m. in the remaining two. This phase sees the most big-league contestants in the fray.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das, seeking a sixth consecutive victory, is contesting from Jamshedpur East. Against him are Congress national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh and BJP-rebel Saryu Roy. Mr. Roy was the Minister for Civil Supplies, Food and Consumer Affairs in the Raghubar Das cabinet. Upset over the BJP not including his name even on the fourth list of candidates, he had declared his decision to contest as an independent. Known to regularly expose corruption in the State, Mr. Roy had expressed dissent over the BJP giving a ticket to Bhanu Pratap Shahi, an accused in the ₹130-crore medicine procurement scam.
Kundan Pahan, the candidate with the highest number of criminal cases in this phase, 44, is contesting from the Tamar seat on a Jharkhand Party ticket. He is a prime accused in the killing of the then Tamar MLA Ramesh Singh Munda of the JD(U) in July 2008. Gopal Krishna Patar alias Raja Peter, also vying to win from Tamar for the NCP, is facing charges for alleged conspiracy in the murder of Munda. Munda’s son Vikas Singh Munda is the sitting MLA now.
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| Constituency | Candidate name | Party | Age | Education | Criminal cases | Assets (Rs.) |
| Jamshedpur East | Raghubar Das | BJP | 64 | Graduate | 2 | 85 lakh+ |
| Saryu Roy | Independent | 68 | Post Graduate | 4 crore+ | ||
| Gourav Vallabh | Congress | 42 | Doctorate | 7 crore+ | ||
| Tamar | Kundan Pahan | Jharkhand Party | 39 | 8th pass | 44 | 24 lakh+ |
| Jugsalai | Ramchandra Sahis | AJSU | 44 | 12th pass | 1 | 93 lakh+ |
| Sisai | Dinesh Oraon | BJP | 56 | Doctorate | 1 crore+ | |
| Jiga Susaran Horo | JMM | 50 | 10th pass | 1 | 57 lakh+ | |
| Chaibasa | Jyoti Bharmar Tubid | BJP | 61 | Graduate | 3 crore+ | |
| Dipak Birua | JMM | 51 | Graduate | 1 crore+ | ||
| Chakradharpur | Laxman Giluwa | BJP | 54 | 12th pass | 3 | 1 crore+ |
| Sukhran Oraon | JMM | 53 | Post Graduate | 1 | 1 crore+ | |
| Ramlal Munda | AJSU | 40 | 12th pass | 1 | 30 lakh+ | |
| Shashibhusan Samad | JVM(P) | 63 | 8th pass | 1 | 24 lakh+ | |
| Torpa | Paulus Surin | Independent | 49 | Graduate | 1 | 2 crore+ |
| Sudeep Guria | JMM | 38 | Graduate professional | 7 lakh+ | ||
| Koche Munda | BLJP | 61 | Post Graduate | 83 lakh+ | ||
| Khunti | Nilkanth Singh Munda | BJP | 51 | graduate | 4 crore+ | |
| Sushil Pahan | JMM | 61 | Graduate | 75 lakh+ | ||
| Dayamani Maran | JVM(P) | 49 | Post Graduate | 3 | 87 lakh+ |
The Tamar seat holds the distinction for defeating a sitting Chief Minister, Shibu Soren, in 2008. After coming to power, Mr. Soren had to be elected as an MLA within six months as is mandated by the Constitution. But he lost the crucial Tamar bypoll to Mr. Patar, a political novice then, by over 10,000 votes, forcing him to step down.
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Contest in the Torpa constituency will be closely watched, where the sitting MLA and rebel-JMM member Paulus Surin is fighting it out as an independent. While he will try to secure a third consecutive victory, it is to be seen if JMM’s decision to field Sudeep Guria instead of Mr. Surin proves advantageous.
Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon in Sisai, Ministers Nilkanth Singh Munda from Khunti and Ramchandra Sahis from Jugsalai and State BJP president Laxman Giluwa from Chakradharpur are the other key contenders in Phase II.