Congress released its first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections in 2024. Rameshwar Oraon, State Finance Minister, and senior Congress leader Ajoy Kumar are among the 21 candidates named by the party.
On Monday, the INDIA bloc in Jharkhand released the list of 21 candidates, with Congress renominating MLAs from 18 seats. The only exceptions will be in Jamshedpur East, Hazaribagh, and Mandu. The upcoming Assembly elections in Jharkhand will be held in two phases, November 13 and November 20 with results being declared on November 23.
The ruling JMM- Congress combine will fight for 70 seats out of state total of 81, leaving 11 for Rashtriya Janta Dal and the Left, the INDIA bloc allies.
Congress renominated 18 MLAs, except Jamshedpur East, Hazaribagh, and Mandu
Ajoy Kumar, a former police officer and former Jharkhand Congress President is fielded from Jamshedpur East. He is expected to stand against Purnima Das Sahu, the daughter-in-law of Raghubar Das, Odisha Governor and former Jharkhand Chief Minister.
Ajoy Kumar won the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha by-poll in 2011. He was then seen resigning from the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections due to some differences within the state party unit. Munna Singh from Hazaribagh, previously contested on a Jharkhand Vikas Morcha ticket. He is the new face being noticed in the candidates list and will stand against Pradeep Prasad, earlier represented by BJP’s Manish Jaiswal.
Jaiprakash Bhai Patel, a former Jharkhand BJP MLA from Mandu
Jaiprakash Bhai Patel resigned from the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections, claiming “I don’t care about my post, I want to save Jharkhand,”. He is expected to fight for the Mandu Assembly seat after an unsuccessful attempt at the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha Election.
Health Minister, Banna Gupta is standing from Jamshedpur East, against JD(U)’s Saryu Roy. Roy, as an independent candidate, went on to defeat BJP chief minister Raghubar Das, in the last election making it a cutthroat constituency for the Congress.
Jmatara constituency is under Minister Irfan Ansari, who is standing against Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren of the BJP, co-founder of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
