Jharkhand polls: BJP to contest 68 seats, ally AJSU 10

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday announced that it will contest 68 out of the 81 Assembly seats in the Jharkhand elections. Its ally the All Jharkhand Students Union will fight in 10 constituencies.

While Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) will contest in two constituencies, Union minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party faction will fight in one, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a press conference.

Sarma is managing the BJP’s election campaign in Jharkhand.

The parties are part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

“There may be some changes according to the situation, but this is what we have discussed,” Sarma told reporters.

Voting in the Jharkhand polls will be conducted in two phases on November 13 and November 20. The counting of votes will take place on November 23, alongside that of the Maharashtra elections.

According to the arrangement, the Janata Dal (United) will be contesting from the Tamar and Jamshedpur West seats. Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will be fighting from Chatra.

The constituencies that the All Jharkhand Students Union will contest from are Silli, Ramgarh, Gomia, Icchagarh, Mandu, Jugsalai, Dumri, Pakur, Lohardaga and Manoharpur.

While Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and its coalition partner Congress have said that they will contest the polls together, the two INDIA bloc parties have not announced their seat-sharing plan.

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 30 seats while the Congress won 16 seats. Another ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, had clinched one seat. Hemant Soren became the chief minister of the coalition government.

The BJP, which was in power in the state between 2014 and 2019, had won 25 seats.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the National Democratic Alliance won nine of the 14 seats in Jharkhand. The Opposition INDIA bloc won five seats in the state.