he Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released its list of 66 candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly elections, fielding party president Babulal Marandi from Dhanwar, and former Chief Minister Champai Soren from Saraikela. The party named Sita Soren, the sister-in-law of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader and Chief Minister Hemant Soren, as its nominee from Jamtara. The list also has the names of Geeta Kora and former Union minister Sudarshan Bhagat.
The BJP is contesting 68 of the 81 Assembly seats in the state, leaving the rest for its allies. Assembly polls will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20 and counting will take place on November 23.
Champai Soren, who contested from Seraikela, joined the BJP on August 30, two days after he resigned from the JMM citing “insult” and dissatisfaction with the party’s current style of functioning and facing “bitter humiliation”. The joining of the 67-year-old-leader in the BJP was seen as a significant boost for the party’s efforts to strengthen its connection with the Scheduled Tribes, a strong support base of the JMM.
Meanwhile, fissures surfaced among INDIA Bloc partners ahead of the Assembly elections as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) expressed disappointment over announcement of JMM and Congress contesting 70 of 81 seats in the State. The RJD said the decision on seat sharing by the two INDIA Bloc constituents was “unilateral”. “We express our disappointment over the offer of seats to us. The decision is unilateral,” RJD spokesperson Manoj Kumar Jha said.
Earlier in the day, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren announced that the JMM and the Congress would contest 70 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections. Jha claimed, “We were not consulted. All options are open to us.”He said that the RJD has identified at least 15 to 18 seats in Jharkhand where it has potential to defeat the BJP on its own. Last time the party had contested seven seats and ended as runner-up in five of them.
In 2019, the JMM-led alliance won 47 seats in the Jharkhand assembly, including 30 of JMM and 16 of the Congress. The BJP had secured 25 seats, JVM-P 3, AJSU Party 2, CPI-ML 1, NCP- 1 and independents 2.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while addressing a meeting in Ranchi claimed that the Constitution is “under attack” by the BJP as he accused the saffron party of controlling institutions such as the Election Commission, bureaucracy and central agencies. He also said no force can stop the caste census and removal of the 50 per cent cap on reservation.
“The Constitution is under constant attack from all sides, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and it needs to be protected,” Gandhi alleged while addressing ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’ in Ranchi ahead of the Jharkhand Assembly polls.
In a no-holds-barred attack, he accused the BJP of “controlling the Election Commission, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax department, bureaucracy and judiciary”. “The BJP also controls funds and institutions but we possess honesty. The Congress fought the Lok Sabha elections without money,” he claimed.
