Congress on Monday released the first list of 21 candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly elections, which includes the names of state government Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon, Congress Working Committee member Ajay Kumar and some other ministers. The list was released a few hours after the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting. Oraon has once again been made a candidate from his current Lohardaga seat.
Former Indian Police Service officer Ajay Kumar has been given ticket from Jamshedpur East assembly constituency. Kumar has also been a Lok Sabha member from Jamshedpur. State Rural Development Minister Irfan Ansari has been fielded again from his current constituency Jamtara, while Health Minister Banna Gupta has been made the candidate from Jamshedpur West. Agriculture Minister Deepika Pandey Singh has once again been made a candidate from Mahagama. He is currently the MLA from this seat. Congress has declared these candidates amid the ongoing deadlock over seat sharing in the ruling alliance.
Congress said on Monday night that on Tuesday the complete picture will be clear as to who will contest on how many seats. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Congress had announced last Saturday that both the parties will contest on 70 out of 81 assembly seats in the state and Ghatak's other allies will contest on the remaining seats. Expressing displeasure over this announcement, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had said on Sunday that less than 12 seats would not be acceptable to it and if it had to contest alone, then even in that situation it would not harm the prospects of the 'India' alliance. Will deliver. JMM, Congress and RJD are part of the opposition alliance 'Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance' (India). Voting will be held in Jharkhand in two phases on 13th and 20th November and counting of votes will take place on 23rd November.
