The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) released its fifth list of candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections on Friday, naming Lois Marandi, a former BJP legislator, as its nominee from the Jama seat. This list contained only Marandi’s name, following her defection from the BJP to the JMM on October 22.
Lois Marandi, a former BJP MLA, previously defeated Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the 2014 elections from the Dumka constituency by a margin of 5,262 votes. The JMM has so far announced 43 candidates for the elections to the 81-seat assembly.
Earlier, on Thursday, the JMM released its fourth list, which included two candidates. The party named Ganesh Mahli, who recently joined JMM from the BJP on October 22, as its candidate for the Seraikela seat. Additionally, Ramsurya Munda was fielded from the Khunti constituency. The JMM’s earlier three lists had announced candidates for 41 seats, bringing the total to 43 with the recent additions. In 2019, the JMM had contested 43 seats and won 30, while ending as the runner-up in five constituencies.
Jharkhand Election 2024
The Jharkhand assembly elections will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, with the counting of votes scheduled for November 23. Filing of nomination papers for the first phase, covering 43 constituencies, began on Friday and will continue until October 25.
As part of the INDIA bloc alliance, the Congress and JMM will contest 70 out of the 81 seats in the upcoming polls, while the remaining 11 seats will be divided among the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left parties. The RJD announced its candidates for six seats on Tuesday.
On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest 68 seats, while its allies include the AJSU Party with 10 candidates, JD(U) with 2 candidates, and LJP (Ram Vilas) with 1 candidate. In the 2019 elections, the JMM-led alliance won 47 seats, thereby wresting power from the BJP. The BJP had won 25 seats, JVM-P three, AJSU Party two, and the CPI (ML) and NCP one each, while two Independent candidates also secured victories.
The upcoming elections will see 2.60 crore eligible voters, including 11.84 lakh first-time voters and 1.13 lakh persons with disabilities (PwD), third-gender individuals, and senior citizens above 85 years of age, exercising their franchise.