The Congress party has released the first list of 21 candidates for the Jharkhand assembly elections scheduled in November 2024. The list that was released on Monday night has Rameshwar Oraon, the incumbent minister for finance in the state as the party’s candidate for the Lohardaga constituency which is a reserved for the Scheduled Tribe. Oraon, a veteran politician who has been a police officer before, has had experience as the state Congress chief earlier.
Apart from Oraon the Congress has declared Ajoy Kumar a ticket from from Jamshedpur East constituency. Kumar is a Lok Saba MP and a former police officer with the party’s responsibility of tri- state in charge including Tripura, Odisha and Nagaland. Another worthy of mention is Shipli Neha Tirkey, who is the candidate to be elected from the Mandar constituency, which is occupied by representatives of the Scheduled Tribes. Tirkey wrested this seat in the last assembly election; her nomination is a reaffirmation of her status in the party and her father, Bandhu Tirkey, is the Congress’s manifesto committee chief for the Jharkhand assembly polls.
Other considerates are Irfan Ansari of Jamtra, Badal Patralekh of Jamundi, Pradeep Yadav of Poreyahat and Deepika Pandey Singh of Mahagama. Further, Amba Prasad Sahu will be the party’s candidate from Barkagaon and Mamta Devi from Ramgarh. The Congress party has also given its ticket to Jai Prakash Patel from Mandu, Munna Singh from Hazaribagh and Kumar Jai Mangal from Bermo and others.
Before finalizing this list, senior leadership of Congress, including new party president Mallikarjun Kharge, old party president Sonia Gandhi, and former vice president Rahul Gandhi met for candidate selection in the Central election committee meeting. For this reason; the Congress party is in an alliance, or better still it is in power sharing with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Jharkhand assembly elections are scheduled in two phases between November 13 and November 20, while the counting of votes will take place on November 23.
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