Bhawanathpur Assembly Election 2024: The Bhawanathpur Assembly constituency is set for a high-stakes battle in the 2024 elections, as Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Anant Pratap Deo will take on the sitting BJP MLA Bhanu Pratap Shahi, who seeks a third consecutive win. Shahi won the seat in both the 2014 and 2019 Assembly elections.
Key candidates
The key candidates for the Bhawanathpur seat are BJP leader and sitting MLA Bhanu Pratap Shahi, JMM leader Anant Pratap Deo, Umendra Kumar Yadav from Samajwadi Party, and Pankaj Kumar from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) among others. Notably, the JMM, Congress, RJD and CPI-ML are jointly contesting the Jharkhand polls under I.N.D.I.A. bloc, while the BJP is contesting with All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), Janata Dal (United) and Chirag Paswan led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
As per seat arrangement in NDA, BJP is contesting in 68 seats, AJSU in 10 seats, JDU in 2 seats and LJP (Ram Vilas) has been given 1 seat. In the INDIA bloc, JMM is contesting in 41 seats, Congress in 30, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in 6 and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in 4 seats.
Bhawanathpur Assembly Constituency
Designated as constituency number 81, Bhawanathpur is one of the two assembly constituencies in the Garhwa district of Jharkhand. It is part of the Palamu Lok Sabha constituency, which also includes five other assembly constituencies: Garhwa (in Garhwa district), Daltonganj, Bishrampur, Chhatarpur and Hussainbad (in Palamu district).
Bhawanathpur is a small town in Bhavnathpur Block of Garhwa District, Jharkhand, at a distance of 40 km from the district headquarters. The postal code of the town is 822112. The main post office is at Bhawanathpur.
Nearby villages include Arsali (5 km), Nawadih (8 km), Bansani (8 km), Kupa (9 km) and Ketar (10 km). Bhawanathpur is surrounded by Kharondi Block in the west, Nagar Untari Block and Ramnak Block in the south and Manjhiyaon Block in the east. Nearby towns include Garhwa, Kota, Hussainbad and Renukoot, making Bhavnathpur a well-connected place.
Bhawanathpur Constituency Demographic Profile
As per data from the Election Commission, there were 3,783,63 voters in the Bhawanathpur constituency during the 20219 Assembly Elections. Out of this, 2,023,42 were male and 1,760,21 were female voters. No voter belonged to the third gender. 630 postal votes were cast in the constituency. The number of service voters in Bhawanathpur in 2019 was 359 (350 men and 9 women).
In 2014, the total number of voters in the Bhawanathpur constituency was 12,699,59. Out of this, 1,435,11 voters were male and 1,264,48 were female voters. There were 295 valid postal votes in the constituency. The number of service voters in Bhawanathpur in 2014 was 225 (160 men and 65 women).
What happened in the 2019 and 2014 Assembly Elections?
In the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly elections, Bhanu Pratap Shahi of the Bharatiya Janata Party defeated Sogra Bibi of the Bahujan Samaj Party by 39,904 votes.
In the 2014 elections, BJP's Vishnu Dayal Ram defeated Rashtriya Janata Dal's Mamata Bhuiyan from Palamau parliament by 288,807 votes Bhavnathpur is an important political battleground in Jharkhand, where the BJP maintains a strong presence.
Jharkhand Assembly Elections
The elections will take place in two phases, on November 13 and November 20, with counting scheduled for November 23. About 2.60 crore electors, including 11.84 lakh first-time voters and 1.13 lakh persons with disabilities, third-gender individuals, and senior citizens over 85, are expected to vote, compared to 2.23 crore in the 2019 assembly elections. he BJP, which lost power to the JMM-led alliance in Jharkhand in 2019, is looking to reclaim its position in the tribal-dominated state.
In 2019, the JMM-led alliance won 47 seats, wresting power from the BJP in the state. The JMM had won 30 seats, while the Congress bagged 16, and the RJD one. The BJP had secured 25 seats, JVM-P three, AJSU Party two, and the CPI-ML and NCP one each, besides two Independents emerging victorious.
