Ranchi, Dec 16 (IANS): Voting for 15 Assembly seats in the fourth phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections begins here on Monday at 7 a.m.

There are total 221 candidates including 23 female are in the fray in this phase whose fate will be decided by around 48 lakh voters. The maximum, 25 candidates, are contesting from Bokaro seat while the minimum, eight candidate, are trying their luck from Nirsa seat.

Out of 15 seats, three -- Deoghar, Jamua and Chandankiyari -- are reserved for Scheduled Castes while remaining 12 are general seats.

A total of 47,81,422 voters are eligible to cast their votes in these 15 Assembly constituencies that spread across four districts -- Deoghar, Giridih, Bokaro and Dhanbad.

On 10 seats, polling will take place between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. while on the remaining seats, which included Bagodar, Jamua, Giridih, Dumri and Tundi, the voting will end at 3 p.m.

A total of 6,101 booths have been set up for voting out of which 4,296 fall in rural areas. In Maoist affected areas, 587 booths have been marked as "very sensitive" and 405 are "sensitive" while in non-Maoist areas, 546 booths are "very sensitive" and 2,665 are "sensitive".

Prominent candidates who are in the race for these seats included Labour Minister Raj Paliwar, Tourism Development Amar Kumar Bauri, Ragni Singh, Raj Kishore Mahto and Dhullu Mahto.