Jharkhand Assembly Election: BJP releases first list of 66 candidates, Babulal Marandi to contest from Dhanwar, Champai Soren from Saraikella

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its first list of 66 candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections. Former Chief Minister and BJP state president Babulal Marandi will contest from the Dhanwar seat. Sita Soren, the sister-in-law of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader and current Chief Minister Hemant Soren, has been chosen to run for the Jamtara seat.

Other prominent candidates include Champai Soren for Saraikella, Dr. Neera Yadav for Koderma, Geeta Koda for Jagannathpur, Narayan Das for Deoghar, Manoj Yadav for Barhi, Pradeep Prasad for Hazaribagh, and Ragini Singh for Jharia.

The BJP is contesting 68 out of the 81 assembly seats in Jharkhand, leaving the remaining seats for its allies. The party aims to defeat the current JMM-Congress alliance in the upcoming state elections. On Friday, the BJP finalized a seat-sharing agreement with its allies: All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), Janata Dal-United (JDU), and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (LJP-RV). According to the deal, BJP will contest 68 seats, AJSU will contest 10, JDU will run in 2, and LJP-RV will contest 1 seat.

The BJP has announced it will contest 68 assembly seats in Jharkhand for the upcoming elections. These include key constituencies like Rajmahal, Borio, Barhait, Dumka, Deoghar, Godda, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur West, Ranchi, and Chaibasa. Other areas where the BJP will field candidates are Giridih, Bokaro, Simdega, Gumla, Khunti, and Daltonganj, among others. The party is aiming to secure a majority by targeting these crucial constituencies across the state.

The Jharkhand Assembly elections will be held in two phases, on November 13 and November 20, with vote counting on November 23. Around 2.60 crore voters are eligible to participate, including 11.84 lakh first-time voters and 1.13 lakh individuals with disabilities, third-gender voters, and senior citizens over 85. This is an increase from the 2.23 crore voters in the 2019 elections. The BJP, which lost to the JMM-led alliance in 2019, is now aiming to regain power in the tribal-dominated state.