Ranchi, Nov 11 (IANS): The polling parties have started departing to conduct the first phase of elections for Jharkhand Assembly to be held on November 13. The personnel deputed for election duty were sent on Monday to 225 polling stations located in remote and inaccessible areas of five districts of the state -- West Singhbhum, Latehar, Lohardaga, Gumla and Garhwa.

The campaigning for the first phase of elections will end on Monday evening.

Polling parties of many of these booths were transported by helicopter. Apart from this, a large number of polling parties have also been sent by buses and trains.

State Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar has said that all necessary measures have been taken to conduct free and fair elections.

Many polling stations in five districts of the state are located in dense forest and mountain areas. There are many centres which have been kept in the highly sensitive category due to being located in Maoist-affected areas.

Conducting safe polling in these areas has been a big challenge for the poll body. At many such booths, polling personnel have been sent in clusters under tight security two days in advance from a security point of view.

Polling parties will stay in clusters on Monday and Tuesday and will reach the polling stations early in the morning on November 13 and conduct polling from 7 A.M. Polling parties will be dispatched to other booths on Tuesday.

For the first phase, a total of 1,37,10,717 voters will decide the fate of 683 candidates for 43 Assembly seats of Jharkhand from 7 A.M. on November 13. The total voters in the first phase include 68,73,455 men and 68,36,959 women and 303 third gender.

The second phase of elections is to be held on November 20 with counting scheduled for November 23.