Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday announced that the INDIA bloc would jointly contest the forthcoming Assembly polls. He also said that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Congress together would field candidates on 70 of the 81 constituencies. The remaining seats would see nominees from other parties of the Opposition alliance, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), contesting the polls.
The CM and senior leader of the JMM made the announcement while addressing the media in Ranchi, days after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for the state Assembly elections in two phases.
Citing the schedule of the Assembly polls announced by the poll panel, Soren said, “The INDIA bloc, while taking this election very seriously and keeping every aspect in mind, have decided to fight the elections together. “Of the 81 Assembly constituencies, it was decided that JMM and Congress will contest in 70 seats and in the remaining Assembly seats there will be candidates of other parties of the INDIA bloc including RJD,” he said.
Jharkhand would see a direct contest between the ruling JMM-Congress led alliance and the BJP in the Assembly polls. In the 2019 Assembly polls, the JMM won 30 seats, Congress 16 and BJP 25 constituencies.
The polling for the first phase (in 43 Assembly constituencies) would take place on 13th November and second phase (in 38 seats) on 20th November.The counting of votes would take place along with Maharashtra on 23rd November.