The Congress party on Monday evening announced its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections. Polling for 81 seats in Jharkhand will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20 and the results will be declared on November 23.
Senior Congress leader Ajoy Kumar, in-charge of Tripura, Odisha and Nagaland, will contest the election from Jamshedpur East constituency.
The former police officer, who was a Lok Sabha member from Jamshedpur, will contest the assembly elections this time.
The party fielded Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon from the Lohardaga seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Oraon is also a former police officer and former Jharkhand Congress president.
Tilki to compete with Mandal
Among them, Shipli Neha Tirkey has been fielded from Mandar (ST) constituency. She is a current member of Parliament. Her father, Bandhu Tirkey, is the chairman of the Congress Manifesto Committee for the Jharkhand polls.
Earlier, the Congress’s top leadership, including party president Mallikarjun Haq, former party presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and several senior leaders met at the party’s central election committee The names of the candidates were considered at a meeting.
The Congress, in alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand, currently shares power in the eastern state.
On October 19, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced the first list of 66 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections.
The saffron party is contesting 68 of the state’s 81 assembly seats, leaving the remaining seats to its NDA allies – All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU), Janata Dal (United) and Lok Sabha (LJP).
AJSU will contest on 10 seats, JDU on 2 seats and LJP on Chatra’s lone seat.
The BJP hopes to wrest Jharkhand from the JMM-Congress alliance in the two-phase polls.
