The Congress party has announced its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections, revealing key contenders on Monday night. Notably, Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon will contest from the Lohardaga seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Ajoy Kumar, a senior leader and the party’s in-charge for Tripura, Odisha, and Nagaland, will run for the Jamshedpur East constituency. Kumar, a former police officer and Lok Sabha MP from Jamshedpur, is making his debut in the Assembly polls.
The Congress party has announced its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections, revealing key contenders on Monday night. Notably, Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon will contest from the Lohardaga seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Ajoy Kumar, a senior leader and the party’s in-charge for Tripura, Odisha, and Nagaland, will run for the Jamshedpur East constituency. Kumar, a former police officer and Lok Sabha MP from Jamshedpur, is making his debut in the Assembly polls.
Additionally, incumbent MLA Shipli Neha Tirkey will seek re-election from the Mandar (ST) constituency. She is the daughter of Bandhu Tirkey, chairman of the Congress’s manifesto committee for these elections.
The decision on candidates followed a meeting of the Congress’s Central Election Committee, attended by top leaders including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, former chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, among others.
The Congress is part of a coalition with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and currently shares power in the state. The Jharkhand Assembly elections are scheduled for November 13 and 20, with vote counting set for November 23.
On October 20, JMM executive president and Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced that the Congress and JMM would jointly contest 70 of the 81 seats, reserving 11 for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Left parties. While the Congress is expected to contest 29 seats, this marks a reduction of two from the last Assembly elections. Official confirmations are pending as negotiations with the JMM and RJD continue.
