Jharkhand: BJP workers stage dharna to protest delay in holding civic body polls

Ranchi, Jan 7 (PTI) BJP workers, led by the party’s Jharkhand unit chief Babulal Marandi, on Wednesday staged a dharna at several places in the state to protest against delay in holding urban local body (ULB) elections.

They also demanded the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) instead of ballot papers in the civic body polls.

The party activists gathered near the office of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation, and raised slogans against the JMM-led government.

“The Hemant Soren government is violating the democratic rights of citizens by delaying the municipal elections... Bureaucracy is being used to promote corruption in the municipal bodies,” Marandi alleged.

He claimed that the elections in Dhanbad, Chas and several others ULBs were due since 2020. In Ranchi, it is pending since April 2023, Marandi said.

“We demand that the government conduct municipal elections at the earliest through EVMs,” he said.

Marandi said sit-in protests were organised across 48 ULBs in Jharkhand. PTI SAN RBT