The BJP on Sunday announced candidates for 52 seats out of the total 81 going to the polls in the Jharkhand Assembly elections starting November 30. The list included 31 incumbents, while 10 sitting MLAs have been dropped, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said at a press conference here.
The party's central election committee at a meeting chaired by BJP president Amit Shah and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved the 52 names, including 13 “youth” candidates and five women, he said. Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das would contest from Jamshedpur East.
BJP working president J.P. Nadda said Jharkhand was earlier been known for “corruption and instability”, but the five-year term of the Raghubar Das government had changed that. He added that the BJP had faith in the leadership of Mr. Das in the State and Mr. Modi nationally and was sure of “good results” in the elections.
Central government schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Ujjwala and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Saman Nidhi had been expanded upon by the State government, which increased the benefits under the schemes, Mr. Nadda said.
With the term of the Jharkhand Assembly ending in January 2020, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had on November 1 announced the schedule of the five-stage polls from November 30 to December 20 and counting for all stages on December 23.
Opposition parties — the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal — had on November 8 announcement their seat-sharing arrangement for the elections to the 81-seat Assembly.
