Jharkhand Elections: Cong, JMM To Contest 70 Seats, RJD Disappointed; BJP Releases 1st List Of Candidates

With less a than month left for the assembly elections in the state, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday announced that the INDIA bloc partners will contest the upcoming polls together and the Congress and the JMM will field candidates in 70 of 81 seats.

"INDIA bloc will contest the Jharkhand assembly polls together. It has been decided during the seat-sharing talks with the allies that the Congress and the JMM will field candidates in 70 of 81 seats," Soren said on Saturday.

According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the assembly polls in Jharkhand for 81 seats will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, and counting will take place on November 23. This time 2.60 crore electors, including 11.84 lakh first-time voters and 1.13 lakh persons with disabilities (PwD), third gender and senior citizens over 85 years of age, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the upcoming elections.

RJD expresses disappointment

Following Soren's announcement, discontent surfaced among INDIA bloc partners as the RJD expressed disappointment over Congress and JMM's seat-sharing equation. "We express our disappointment over the offer of seats to us. The decision is unilateral," Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) spokesperson Manoj Kumar Jha said.

"We were not consulted. All options are open to us", Jha further added.

He said that the RJD has identified "at least 15 to 18 seats" in Jharkhand where it has the potential to defeat the BJP on its own.

"A proper consultation process should have been done before declaring the seats...No political party can reject the sentiments of its voters and supporters...we have enough strength," he said.

BJP releases first list of candidates

The National Democratic Allinace (NDA) as well announced its seat-sharing formula among its partners on Friday. This time, in an aim to topple the government, the BJP will contest 68 seats, AJSU Party 10, JD(U) 2 and LJP (Ram Vilas) 1.

Furthermore, the BJP on Saturday released its first list of 66 candidates where they fielded party president Babulal Marandi from Dhanwar and former chief minister Champai Soren from Saraikella.

The party named Sita Soren, the sister-in-law of JMM leader and Chief Minister Hemant Soren, as its nomine from Jamtara. The list also has the names of Geeta Koda and former Union minister Sudarshan Bhagat.

The 2019 flashback

Back in 2019, the JMM-led alliance bagged 47 seats in the Jharkhand assembly, including 30 seats of JMM and 16 of the Congress. The RJD won one seat. Its MLA Satyanand Bhokta is a minister in the Hemant Soren cabinet.

The BJP had secured 25 seats, JVM-P3, AJSU Party 2, CPI-ML 1, NCP- 1 and two independents emerged victorious.

Currently, the Jharkhand assembly has 74 members, with the JMM-led ruling alliance having 44 MLAs.

Rahul Gandhi slams BJP over controlling EC, CBI, ED

Launching a scathing attack on the BJP, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that the Constitution is "under attack" as the saffron party allegedly is in control of institutions such as the Election Commission and central probe agencies like ED, and CBI.

"The Constitution is under constant attack from all sides, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and it needs to be protected," Gandhi alleged while addressing 'Samvidhan Samman Sammelan' in Ranchi ahead of the Jharkhand Assembly polls.

"The BJP also controls funds and institutions but we possess honesty. The Congress fought the Lok Sabha elections without money," he claimed.