On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared Gamliyel Hembrom to contest against Chief Minister Hemant Soren for the Barhait seat in the Jharkhand assembly elections.
The NCP’s national general secretary, Arun Singh, said that the party’s central election committee had endorsed Hembrom’s candidature, besides Vikas Mahto from the Tundi assembly segment.
The BJP is contesting a total of 68 out of the 81 seats in the Jharkhand assembly elections, leaving the remaining 13 seats for its allies: All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) gets 10, Janata Dal-United (JDU) gets 2 while Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) gets 1.
Earlier, the BJP declared 66 of its candidates on 19th October, but the Barhait and Tundi seats were kept ‘open’ for a later date. Hembrom, a young Politician and a keen sports enthusiast had fought the 2019 Assembly elections for Barhait on an AJSU ticket and had polled about 2,500 votes. Still, his performance has generally been average, although he is a famous sports lover and an organizer of massive football championships in the area, making him a good candidate.
In the last assembly elections held in 2019, BJP had given a ticket to Simon Malto for Barhait where he polled around 48000 votes but could not succeed by around 25000 votes of Hemant Soren. With the political competition getting stiffer in Jharkhand, the BJP is backing Hembrom’s familiarity and involvement within the community to unseat the current chief minister.
The elections for the 81-member Jharkhand assembly are also a five-phase poll and are due in two phases on November 13 and 20. The counting of the votes will take place on November 23. In the coming days, key candidates have been declared, and campaigns are underway, which sets the premise for a considerable contentious electoral struggle in Jharkhand.
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