Ranchi:

 The Congress has released its final list of candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly elections, naming Shweta Singh from Bokaro and Ajay Dubey from Dhanbad.

Voting in these two constituencies is slated for November 20 in the second phase while the last date for filing nominations is October 29.

Shweta Singh was the Congress candidate from Bokaro in the 2019 Assembly polls, in which she was defeated by BJP’s Biranchi Narayan by about 10,000 votes. She is the daughter-in-law of late Samaresh Singh, who was a former MLA from Bokaro and one of the stalwart leaders of Jharkhand.

Ajay Dubey, who has been made a candidate from Dhanbad assembly seat, has been associated with the Congress for a long time and has held many posts in the party. He contested as the Congress candidate from Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat in 2014, and was defeated by BJP’s P.N. Singh by more than 2.92 lakh votes.

Congress has so far declared candidates for 30 seats in Jharkhand. In its first list, the party named 21 candidates, in the second list it nominated seven candidates, and the remaining two candidates were named in the third list released late on Monday — with just a day left for filing nomination.

The party has denied ticket to only one of its current MLAs in Jharkhand. Congress legislator from Barhi seat Umashankar Akela, after being denied a ticket by the party, has entered the fray on the Samajwadi Party ticket.

Voting for the 81 seats of the Jharkhand Assembly will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, while the counting of votes is slated for November 23.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Congress released its first list of 21 candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly polls on Monday night, fielding Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon from the Lohardaga seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

Senior Congress leader and the party’s in-charge for Tripura, Odisha and Nagaland, Ajoy Kumar, will contest the election from the Jamshedpur East constituency.

The former police officer, who has been a Lok Sabha MP from Jamshedpur in the past, is contesting the Assembly polls this time.

Mr Oraon, also a former police officer, is a former Jharkhand Congress chief.

Among others, Shipli Neha Tirkey has been fielded from the Mandar (ST) constituency. She is the incumbent MLA from the seat. Her father, Bandhu Tirkey, is the chairman of the Congress’s manifesto committee for the Jharkhand polls.

Earlier, the top Congress leadership, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, along with several senior leaders, deliberated on the candidates’ names at a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee.

The Congress is in an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand and currently shares power in the eastern state.

The Jharkhand polls will be held in two phases on November 13 and November 20, and the counting of votes will be taken up on November 23.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ranchi:

INDIA bloc will contest the upcoming Jharkhand assembly polls together, Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced today. The Congress and ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha will field candidates in 70 of the 81 assembly segments, he said.

“We can’t go into the details of the seat-sharing right now. Our alliance partner is not here right now. When they are here, we will finalise the number of seats and other details,” Mr Soren told reporters, adding seat-sharing talks are on with other alliance partners – RJD and Left parties – for the remaining 11 segments.

Jharkhand will vote in two phases on November 13 and 20. Votes will be counted on November 23.

In the last elections, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha or JMM had contested 43 seats while Congress contested 31 seats. But this time around, the Congress is likely to get somewhere between 27 to 28 seats, sources said. The JMM is expected to increase its share because it believes that Hemant Soren is a key face in Jharkhand and the grand alliance will get votes on his name, they added.

According to the sources, the Communist Party of India (M-L) and Marxist Coordination Committee (MMC) also want to join forces with the JMM and Congress in this election. The Rashtriya Janata Dal, which fought on seven seats in the last assembly polls, is expected to contest fewer seats this time and agree to give the Bagodar seat to CPI (M-L) and Nirsa to MMC, they added.

Mr Soren’s announcement came a day after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) revealed its seat-sharing formula for the state. BJP will contest 68 seats, while its allies, All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) will contest 10, Janata Dal (United) will contest two and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will contest the lone seat of Chatra.

“NDA is at its strongest in Jharkhand so far. It has never been in history that four parties have come together to fight the elections. NDA allies are even ready to swap their seats at the last moment if needed. We are ready to throw the corrupt government off the seat. All NDA members should come and fight with us. Hemant Soren’s government is the most corrupt in the state’s history,” said Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pratul Shah Deo.

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the JMM won 30 of the 81 seats, the Congress 16 and the RJD won one seat. The three parties formed a coalition government with a comfortable majority. The BJP won 25 seats, down from 37 in 2014, while the AJSU Party, contesting alone, ended up winning two seats.