Congress on Thursday announced a candidate list of seven candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections. The first list for the Jharkhand polls was released by the grand old party two days ago on October 22.
"The Central Election Committee of party has selected the following members as Congress candidates for the ensuing elections to the Legislative Assembly of Jharkhand," the party said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Congress has fielded Nishat Alam from Pakaur, Arun Sahu from Barhi, Suresh Kumar Baitha from Kanke (SC), and Lal Suraj from Panki. While KN Tripathi has been fielded from Daltonganj, Sudhir Kumar Chandravanshi and Radha Krishna Kishore have been fielded from Bishrampur and Chhatarpur (SC), respectively.
The Congress will be contesting the Jharkhand polls in an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which has the ruling government in the state led by CM Hemant Soren.
As per the first list, senior Congress leader and the party's in-charge for Tripura, Nagaland, and Odisha, Ajoy Kumar, will contest the election from the Jamshedpur East constituency. Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon has been fielded from the Lohardaga seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Oraon has previously served as a police officer and is also a former Jharkhand Congress chief.
JMM had also released its first list of 35 candidates on Tuesday, October 22, fielding party chief Hemant Soren from the Barhet Assembly seat. His wife Kalpana Murmu Soren has been fielded from the Gandey Assembly constituency.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had released its first list of 66 candidates much earlier than Congress and JMM on October 19. The BJP will be contesting on 68 of the total 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand. The remaining will be contested by its allies, Janata Dal (United), All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
Voting will be held for 81 seats of Jharkhand in two phases on November 13 and 20. The results will be announced on November 23.