Jharkhand polls: 15 lawmakers retained as Congress releases 1st candidates list

Fifteen legislators, including four ministers, have been given tickets as the Congress released its first list of 21 candidates for the Jharkhand assembly polls even as the ruling Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is yet to finalise its seats-sharing pact. People aware of the matter said the bloc is likely to announce the pact on Tuesday.
Congress’s Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir said the list accounts for around 70% of the seats the party will likely contest in alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morch (JMM), Rashtriya Janata Dal, and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. The list was released late on Monday hours after Mallikarjuna Kharge, the Congress chief, chaired the party’s central election committee meeting. Mir said the rest of the candidates would be cleared by Tuesday.
The names of the candidates for Pakurand and Barhi seats have been kept on hold. Uma Shankar Akela and Alamgir Alam represent the two seats. Alam was a minister in chief minister Hemant Soren’s Cabinet. Irfan Ansari replaced him after the Enforcement Directorate arrested Alam over alleged money laundering charges. His son, Tanveer Alam, was expected to replace him as the Congress candidate.
Ansari and three other ministers Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta, Deepika Pandey Singh will contest the polls. Ajoy Kumar, a Congress national spokesperson, has been fielded from the Jamsedhpur East seat against Purnima Das, daughter-in-law of Odisha governor Raghubar Das.
Jharkhand will go to the polls in two phases on November 13 and 20. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes to keep up the momentum of the unexpected victory in Haryana this month. The BJP overcame anti-incumbency and registered its highest vote share and seat tally—48 of the 90 seats—even as exit polls predicted Congress’s victory in Haryana.
In Jharkhand, the BJP emerged as the biggest party in the Lok Sabha elections this summer by winning eight of the 14 seats. The JMM bagged three, and ally Congress two Lok Sabha seats. The AJSU Party won the remaining Lok Sabha seat.
In the 2019 assembly polls, the JMM-led alliance emerged as the winner with 47 seats in the 81-member House. The Congress got 17 seats.