The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has released the first list of candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections. As per the list, Babulal Marandi will be contesting polls from Dhanwar seat, while Champai Soren is set to represent Saraikela.
Sita Soren has been fielded from Jamtara, and Neera Yadav will be contesting from Kodarma. In Gandey, Muniya Devi will be the BJP candidate, with Tara Devi in Sindri and Apnarna Sengupta in Nirsa. Ragini Singh will represent the party in Jharia, Geeta Balmuchu in Chaibasa, and Pushpa Devi Bhuiyan will contest from Chhatarpur.
Elections to the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly is scheduled to be held in two phases — November 13 and 20. The counting of the votes will be conducted on November 23.
On Friday, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced its seat-sharing formula. The BJP will be contesting polls in 68 Assembly constituencies, All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) will contest on 10 seats, and Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) will contest on two and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) on one seat.
In the 2019 Jharkhand assembly elections, the JMM-led alliance won 47 seats — 30 for the JMM and 16 for Congress. The BJP secured 25 seats, while JVM-P took 3, AJSU Party 2, CPI-ML 1, NCP 1, and independents 2.
Currently, the assembly has 74 members, with the JMM-led alliance holding 44 seats. Two JMM legislators, Nalin Soren and Joba Majhi, are now members of Parliament. Jama MLA Sita Soren resigned to run in the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket.
