Ranchi, 19 Oct

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday said that the INDIA bloc partners will contest the upcoming assembly polls together and the Congress and the JMM will field candidates in 70 of 81 seats.

Seat-sharing talks are on with alliance partners - the RJD and the Left parties - for the remaining 11 seats, he said.

The assembly polls for 81 seats will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, and counting will take place on November 23.

"INDIA bloc will contest the Jharkhand assembly polls together. It has been decided during the seat-sharing talks with the allies that the Congress and the JMM will field candidates in 70 of 81 seats," Soren said after meeting with the alliance partners here.

He said the decision was taken after consultations with allies and candidates would be announced soon.

Soren said the JMM-led alliance was confident of retaining power in the state on the back of its development work.

The NDA on Friday announced its seat-sharing formula among its partners. The BJP will contest 68 seats, AJSU Party 10, JD(U) 2 and LJP (Ram Vilas) 1.

Filing of nomination papers for 43 assembly constituencies of Jharkhand, which are going to polls on November 13 in the first phase, began on Friday and will continue till October 25.

In 2019, the JMM-led alliance won 47 seats in the Jharkhand assembly, including 30 of JMM and 16 of the Congress.

The BJP had secured 25 seats, JVM-P 3, AJSU Party 2, CPI-ML 1, NCP- 1 and independents 2.

Currently, the strength of the assembly stands at 74, with the JMM-led ruling alliance having 44 members.

Two JMM legislators, Nalin Soren and Joba Majhi, are now members of Parliament, while Jama legislator Sita Soren resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket.

Additionally, Borio MLA Lobin Hembrom was recently disqualified under the anti-defection law.

Similarly, the BJP’s strength has decreased to 23, with two of its MLAs—Dhulu Mahto (Baghmara) and Manish Jaiswal (Hazaribag)—now serving as MPs.

Mandu MLA Jaiprakash Bhai Patel, who joined Congress before the Lok Sabha elections, was also disqualified under the anti-defection law.

Altogether 2.60 crore electors, including 11.84 lakh first-time voters and 1.13 lakh persons with disabilities (PwD), third gender and senior citizens over 85 years of age, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the upcoming elections.-PTI