Congress releases 1st list of 21 candidates for Jharkhand polls

The Congress released its first list of 21 candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly polls on Monday night, 21 October, fielding finance minister Rameshwar Oraon from the Lohardaga seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

Senior Congress leader and the party's in-charge for Tripura, Odisha and Nagaland, Ajoy Kumar, will contest the election from the Jamshedpur East constituency.

The former police officer, who has been a Lok Sabha MP from Jamshedpur in the past, is contesting the Assembly polls this time.

Oraon, also a former police officer, is a former Jharkhand Congress chief.

Among others, Shipli Neha Tirkey has been fielded from the Mandar (ST) constituency. She is the incumbent MLA from the seat. Her father, Bandhu Tirkey, is the chairman of the Congress's manifesto committee for the Jharkhand polls.

Earlier, the top Congress leadership, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, along with several senior leaders, deliberated on the candidates' names at a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee.

The Congress is in an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand and currently shares power in the eastern state.

The Jharkhand polls will be held in two phases on 13 November and 20 November, and the counting of votes will be taken up on 23 November.