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Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren with his wife Kalpana Soren during a meeting with Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, party President Mallikarjun Kharge and party MP KC Venugopal. (PTI file photo)
Jharkhand CM that seat-sharing talks are ongoing with INDIA Bloc partners RJD and the Left parties for the remaining 11 seats
Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren on Saturday announced at the INDIA bloc partners will contest the upcoming state assembly elections together, further stating that the Congress party and his party, JMM, will field candidates in 70 out of 81 seats.
Soren emphasised that discussions on seat-sharing are ongoing with alliance partners RJD and the Left parties for the remaining 11 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,” said Jharkhand CM after meeting with alliance partners in Ranchi.
The assembly elections for the 81 seats in Jharkhand will take place in two phases on November 13 and 20, with the counting of votes scheduled for November 23.
He said the decision was taken after consultations with allies and candidates would be announced soon.
Soren said the JMM-led alliance was confident of retaining power in the state on the back of its development work.
The NDA on Friday announced its seat-sharing formula among its partners. The BJP will contest 68 seats, AJSU Party 10, JD(U) 2 and LJP (Ram Vilas) 1.
Filing of nomination papers for 43 assembly constituencies of Jharkhand, which are going to polls on November 13 in the first phase, began on Friday and will continue till October 25.
In 2019, the JMM-led alliance won 47 seats in the Jharkhand assembly, including 30 of JMM and 16 of the Congress.
The BJP had secured 25 seats, JVM-P 3, AJSU Party 2, CPI-ML 1, NCP- 1 and independents 2.
Currently, the strength of the assembly stands at 74, with the JMM-led ruling alliance having 44 members.
Two JMM legislators, Nalin Soren and Joba Majhi, are now members of Parliament, while Jama legislator Sita Soren resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket.
Additionally, Borio MLA Lobin Hembrom was recently disqualified under the anti-defection law.
Similarly, the BJP’s strength has decreased to 23, with two of its MLAs—Dhulu Mahto (Baghmara) and Manish Jaiswal (Hazaribag)—now serving as MPs.
Mandu MLA Jaiprakash Bhai Patel, who joined Congress before the Lok Sabha elections, was also disqualified under the anti-defection law.
Altogether 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.
(With inputs from PTI)
