The Congress party released its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly polls on Monday night. 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.
Senior Congress leader and the party's in-charge for Tripura, Odisha and Nagaland, Ajoy Kumar, will contest the election from the Jamshedpur East constituency.
The former police officer, who has been a Lok Sabha MP from Jamshedpur in the past, is contesting the Assembly polls this time.
The party had fielded Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon from the Lohardaga seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Oraon, also a former police officer, is a former Jharkhand Congress chief.
Among others, Shipli Neha Tirkey has been fielded from the Mandar (ST) constituency. She is the incumbent MLA from the seat. Her father, Bandhu Tirkey, is the chairman of the Congress's manifesto committee for the Jharkhand polls.
Earlier, the top Congress leadership, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, along with several senior leaders, deliberated on the candidates' names at a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee.
The Congress is in an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand and currently shares power in the eastern state.
On October 19, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released its first list of 66 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections.
The saffron party is contesting on 68 of the 81 assembly seats in the state, leaving the rest for its NDA allies - All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
AJSU will contest on 10 seats, JDU on 2 seats and LJP will contest the lone seat of Chatra.
The BJP is looking to wrest Jharkhand from the JMM-Congress alliance in the two-phase polls.
(With PTI inputs)
