Jamshedpur: All eyes remained glued to Jamshedpur East Assembly seat as voters in the city went on to exercise their franchise during the second phase of polling on Saturday.
CM Raghubar Das and BJP rebel leader are facing tough contest against each other from Jamshedpur East.
In the morning, Das along with his wife Rukmani Devi, son Lalit Das and daughter in law Purnima Das exercise their franchise at Bhalubhasa Rajkiya Harijan Uchh Vidhyalya.
Latter talking to the newsmen, Das said that he confident of winning the election. He said that the voters have full faith in BJP and the party will form the next Government.
Raghubar Das, who is taking on food and civil supplies minister Saryu Roy waved at the voters , shook hands with them and also greeted elders with a namastes.
The CM won the 2014 assembly polls from Jamshedpur East with a margin of 70,157 against nearest Congress rival Anand Bihari Dubey.
Apart from Roy, the Chief Minister is being challenged by Congress Party�s national spokesperson and XLRI Jamshedpur Professor Gourav Vallabh and JVM�s central secretary Abhay Singh.
Saryu Roy also cast his vote at KMPM Vocational College polling booth in Bistupur. He said that the people are voting for change and he will make history this time.
Meanwhile, Banna Gupta, the Mahagatbandhan nominee from Jamshedpur West visited Mango, Kadma, Sonari and Shastrinagar even as Jugsalai�s Ajsu candidate Ram Chandra Sahis walked through market lanes.
�I had been campaigning for over a week now. Today I thanked voters for their support to me,� said Congressman Gupta, who is in one-to-one contest with BJP�s Devendra Singh.
Meanwhile, resentment against BJP for not giving senior leader and sitting legislator Saryu Roy party ticket from Jamshedpur West constituency caste was evident as Devendra Nath Singh, BJP candidate from seat (Jamshedpur West) expressed confidence of victory.
Sources went on to inform that many dissatisfied BJP supporters used their votes for the Congress candidate Banna Gupta from the Jamshedpur West.
The support for Banna was visible at localities like Zakirnagar, Azadnagar and Jawaharnagar in Mango where there are over one lakh voters from minority community.
Though Jamshedpur West constituency is considered to be a communally sensitive constituency with BJP candidate on one side and Congress candidate on the other, here the Congress candidate is hoping to get votes both from the Hindu community as well as the Muslim community, which is traditionally a congress supporter.
Voters standing in queue were a bit surprised to see the former managing director of Tata Steel JJ Irani along with his wife Daisy Irani standing amidst them. Though the media was keen to interact with them but they thought it better to just give a smile to the eager photographers. TMH GM along with wife also casted vote at Loyola School.
Since early morning the security at the Loyola School booth was tight. But despite its VIP status, the polling booth did see a fair number of people cast their votes. While many voters were either unaware about the VIPs on the list others felt it didn�t make a difference.
Senior BJP leader Amarpreet Singh Kale voted at Gujarati English Medium School at Kashidih. Clad in his trademark black bundy, Kale standing in a queue exercised his franchise.
Senior officials of various other companies along with their spouses also turned up to vote this time. Though they refused to comment on the elections however they gave poses for the photojournalists.
�Though a number of VIPs are on the list at Loyola School booth however I had little problem in casting my vote, all were treated like a common citizen,� said a voter while coming out of the booth.