Two former chief ministers, Babulal Marandi and Champai Soren, are among BJP’s list of 66 candidates for the Jharkhand elections released on Saturday evening. Mr Soren, a former aide of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, quit the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha or JMM and crossed over to the BJP in August.
The list also features Champai Soren’s son and Sita Soren, the sister-in-law of Hemant Soren.
Mr Marandi, the Jharkhand BJP president, will contest from Dhanwar, while Champai Soren and his son Babulal Soren will contest from Saraikella and Ghatshila, respectively.
Sita Soren is BJP’s nominee from Jamtara.
The list also has the names of Geeta Koda, from Jaganathpur, and former Union minister Sudarshan Bhagat fighting from Gumla.
Meera Munda, wife of former Union Minister Arjun Munda, has been nominated from Potka.
Ragini Singh has been nominated from Jharia, Prunima Das Sahu from Jamshedpur east and Pushpa Devi Buiyan has been fielded from Chhatarpur.
The BJP is contesting on 68 seats. Its allies, the All Jharkhand Students’ Union will contest on 10, the Janata Dal (U) on two, and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) on one.
Jharkhand will vote in two phases, down from the five phases in 2019, on November 13 and 20. Votes will be counted on November 23.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the JMM as part of the UPA (United Progressive alliance) contested 43 seats, the Congress contested 31 seats and the Rashtriya Janata Dal seven seats in the 81-member assembly. The UPA attained victory by winning 47 seats against BJP’s 25 seats.
