The World Opinion

Tag: Jharkhand Election 2024

  • Assembly Elections 2024: Congress Announces 4 Candidates For Maharashtra, 2 For Jharkhand Polls |

    NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Monday, announced a combined list of six candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
    The party announced four candidates for Maharashtra and two candidates for Jharkhand. In Maharashtra, the Congress has announced Madhurimaraje Malojiraje Chhatrapati from Kolhapur North, Sajid Khan Mannan Khan from Akola West, Heera Devasi from Colaba and Chetan Narote from Solapur City Central.

    With this, the Congress has so far announced candidates for 102 of 288 Assembly seats. Congress is a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP. The MVA alliance have declared candidates for 268 seats so far. Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) have fielded their candidates on 84 and 82 seats, respectively.

    The Maharashtra Assembly elections are scheduled for November 20, with counting for all 288 constituencies set for November 23. In the 2019 assembly elections, the BJP won 105 seats, the Shiv Sena 56, and the Congress 44. In 2014, the BJP secured 122 seats, the Shiv Sena 63, and the Congress 42.

    The Congress also released its final list of two candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly polls, fielding Sweta Singh from Bokaro and Ajay Dubey from Dhanbad. With this, the party has declared a total of 30 candidates for the Assembly polls that will be held in two phases next month.

    Earlier, the Congress had declared two lists of 21 and seven candidates in Jharkhand. The Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) alliance has been in power in the eastern state since 2019. Elections for the 81 seats of the Jharkhand assembly in two phases on November 13 and November 20.

    In the previous assembly election, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 30 seats, BJP won 25 and Congress won 16 seats. The counting of votes for both elections will be taken up on November 23.

  • Jharkhand Election 2024: Focus On Nine Seats With Close Margins; BJP, JMM Eye Booster Shot |

    Jharkhand Vidhansabha Chunav 2024: With the first phase of the Jharkhand assembly elections only a fortnight away, the political parties have upped their campaigning and efforts to woo the voters. Of the 81-member assembly seat, certain seats have witnessed a close encounter while some have been strongholds of either the BJP or the Congress. With 42 seats being the majority mark, the BJP and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) are working to gain an upper hand on seats which have traditionally witnessed a close contest. 

    These nine seats are Kodarma, Mandhu, Baghmara, Jarmundi, Deoghar, Godda, Simdega, Nala, and Jama. In the 2019 assembly elections, the BJP had won five and the two seats each went to the JMM and the Congress. However, the Jharkhand Lok Sabha poll result gave an edge to the BJP-All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) alliance a lead in eight of these nine seats.

    The election to these seats has also become crucial because the voters are all set to witness a united fight between two blocs – NDA and INDIA. While AJSU, JDU, BJP and LJP are part of the NDA, Congress, JMM, RJD and Left constitute the INDIA bloc.

    In the 2019 assembly elections, the lowest victory margin in these nine seats was in Simdega where Bhushan Bara of Congress defeated Shradhanand Besra of the BJP by 285 votes. In Baghmera, the BJP narrowly edged out the Congress by 824 votes. In the constituencies it didn’t win, the BJP secured the second position in four of them. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a partner of the JMM and Congress, was the runner-up in three constituencies, while the Congress and the AJSU each took second place in one constituency. Among the closely contested seats that the BJP managed to flip in 2019, it had placed as runner-up in three of them five years prior. This included Torpa, where the party narrowly lost to the JMM by just 43 votes.

    The assembly polls in Jharkhand will take place in two phases – the first phase on November 13 and the second phase on November 20. The counting of votes will take place on November 23.

  • Is Congress Losing Credibility Among INDIA Bloc? Allies Take Charge Across Poll-Bound States – Analysis |

    Assembly Elections 2024: Two states are going to elect their next governments – Jharkhand and Maharashtra in the coming weeks. Both of these assembly polls are crucial given the results of the recent assembly elections of Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir. While Congress lost Haryana to the BJP, it’s sitting outside the government in Jammu and Kashmir. The election results of these two states had put a serious dent in the Congress party’s winnability chances. 

    In Jammu and Kashmir, Congress contested 32 seats but could win only six seats. In Haryana, it contested 89 seats and won just 37 in a direct contest with the BJP. Soon after the election result, the INDIA Bloc was quick to raise questions on the Congress party’s strike rate in a direct contest with the BJP. The seat-sharing agreement between Congress and INDIA bloc allies reflected the fallout of the Haryana and J&K results. 

    Uttar Pradesh Bypolls

    Nine assembly seats are going to the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party were locked in an intense seat-sharing deal. But the Samajwadi Party refused to buzz to the Congress party’s demand and finally, it was decided that the Samajwadi Party would contest all the seats on its own. However, Akhilesh Yadav gave a face-saver to Congress by saying that it’s INDIA Bloc’s united fight.

    Bihar Bye-elections

    In Bihar, where the RJD, Congress and Left parties are part of the Mahagathbandhan, the Congress has again scored a duck. Of the four seats up for bypolls, the RJD is contesting 3 and the CPI-ML has got one. Notably, this comes as the Congress party’s strike rate has been very low in Bihar. In the Bihar assembly elections in 2020, Congress contested 70 seats and managed to win just 19.  

    Jharkhand Assembly Elections

    In Jharkhand, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has given 29 seats to the Congress out of the 80. It’s the only state where Congress has been given a respectable seat share by the allies. However, it again leaves the Congress dependent on the allies for government formation. 

    Maharashtra Assembly Polls

    In Maharashtra, the Congress was trying to contest around 110 seats citing its improved performance in the Lok Sabha polls. However, regional parties like Shiv Sena-UBT and the NCP-Sharad Pawar did not buzz and after marathon meetings, the parties agreed to Shiv Sena-UBT’s proposal of contesting below 100 seats. Now, all three big parties will contest 85 seats each, leaving the rest of the seats for Samajwadi Party, PWP, CPI(M), CPI, and AAP.

    Congress Being Pushed To The Wall

    Once the largest party in the country, Congress is increasingly being pushed to the back seats across big states. INDIA bloc allies are forcing the grand old party either to sit out or sit back when it comes to seat sharing. Be it in West Bengal or Tamil Nadu, the allies took control of the polls by bagging the majority shares of the seats. The same is happening across other states where the Congress has failed to perform in a direct contest against the BJP. While Congress has displayed a maturity by playing second fiddle in these polls, the party will suffer in the long-run as the allies will bcome stronger, leaving less space for Congress.

  • Jharkhand Election 2024: JMM Releases 1st List Of 35 Candidates, Hemant Soren To Contest From Barhait |

    RANCHI: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha released its first list of 35 candidates for the upcoming assembly polls on Wednesday, fielding Chief Minister Hemant Soren from Barhait and Kalpana Soren from Gandey segments. The assembly polls will be held in two phases — on November 13 and 20 — while the results will be declared on November 23.

    Hemant Soren is the sitting MLA from Barhait (ST) constituency in Sahibganj district. He won the seat by 25,740 votes over his nearest BJP rival Simon Malto in the 2019 assembly elections. His wife Kalpana Soren had won the Gandey bypoll by 27,149 votes over her nearest BJP rival Dilip Kumar Verma. The seat had fallen vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.

    Of the 35 JMM nominees, Basant Soren, the incumbent chief minister’s brother, will contest from Dumka, Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Rabindranath Mahto from Nala, Minister Mithilesh Thakur from Garhwa, Sonu Sudivya from Giridih and Bebi Devi from Dumri.

    Basant defeated former BJP minister Lois Marandi by over 6,842 votes in party stronghold Dumka, the constituency vacated by his elder brother Hemant Soren after he won Dumka and Barahit in the December 2019 assembly elections and decided to retain the latter.

    Assembly Speaker Mahto won Nala in Jamtara by a margin of 3,520 votes, defeating Satyanand Jha of the BJP in the last elections. Mahto had won the seat in 2005 and 2014 also.

    The other candidates announced by the JMM include Dipak Birua from Chaibasa and Kedar Hazara, a three-term sitting MLA of BJP who joined the party recently, from Jamua.

  • PM Modi Slams JMM-Cong-RJD Alliance In Jharkhand, Calls Them ‘Hindrance To Development’ |

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the ruling alliance of Jharkhand, including JMM, Congress, and RJD, and said that this alliance is the biggest hindrance in the development of the state. He further said that JMM and Congress are busy carrying out a marathon of scams in Jharkhand.

    “Now JMM has also been coloured by Congress and RJD. This is not the same old JMM. Today JMM has been taken over by the Congress ecosystem. Today JMM is haunted by the ghost of Congress—the language changed, the character changed, and now they are trying to change the soul of Jharkhand. JMM and Congress are busy conducting a marathon of scams in Jharkhand,” PM Modi said.

    The Prime Minister was addressing a Parivartan Mahasabha in Hazaribagh. Continuing his attack at the ruling alliance, he said that when the central government is working day and night for the development of Jharkhand, the state government (the Hemant Soren-led government) is trying to derail the development of the state.

    “The central government is working day and night for the development of Jharkhand, whereas, on the other hand, the state government (Hemant Soren-led government) is trying to derail the development of the state. Today everyone in the state knows that Congress JMM and RJD’s alliance is the biggest hindrance in the development of the state. Jharkhand will only grow and develop when the present government loses. Jharkhand will only grow when there is change in the state. Therefore, the Parivartan Yatra is underway in the state,” he said.

    “I have heard that now, when he is about to leave, he has increased both the speed and scale of corruption. Thousands of transfers have taken place in Jharkhand in the last two weeks. Transfer-posting industry… this is a very big industry. JMM has made crores of rupees on the pretext of this. But now this game is not going to last long… soon the government will change in Jharkhand and every penny of this loot will be accounted for,” he further stated.

    PM Modi lashed out at the grand old party and RJD and said that back before 2001, a party like RJD had made Jharkhand its place of loot and Congress was an equal shareholder with RJD. He further accused the Congress party of suppressing the demands of forming Jharkhand. He said that it was former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee who fulfilled the dreams and created Jharkhand state with peace and consensus.

    “BJP is the party that, along with all of you, saw the dream of Jharkhand state and also fulfilled it. As soon as Atal Ji came to power, he created Jharkhand state with peace and consensus. We wanted the development of Jharkhand; we wanted to fulfill the dreams of the tribal society here, but in fulfilling these, we had to fight with parties like RJD. A party like RJD had made Jharkhand its place of loot. Water, forest, and land were openly looted. They had made this area a safe house for criminals and mafias, and who was supporting RJD from Delhi?—Congress Party. Congress was an equal shareholder with RJD. They used to say that Jharkhand wouldn’t be made, and the Congress party had assured to suppress the demands of Jharkhand,” the Prime Minister said.

    Jharkhand is likely to go to polls for its 81-member legislative assembly by December 2024, as the current government’s tenure is set to end in January 2025. The Election Commission is yet to announce the election schedule. In the 2020 assembly election, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 30 seats, the Bharatiya Janta Party bagged 25 and the Congress won 16.

    (With ANI Inputs)

  • Jharkhand Polls: BJP Seat Sharing With AJSU, JD(U) Almost Final, Says Himanta |

    The BJP is gearing up for the Jharkhand assembly polls. While it was earlier expected that the BJP and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) will contest the polls together, BJP leader and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the Janta Dal (United) will also be a part of the alliance. Sarma, who is also the BJP’s Jharkhand election co-in-charge along with AJSU president Sudesh Mahto held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah this evening to finalize seat sharing.

    Speaking to the media earlier in the day, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “In the elections, there will be an alliance with Janta Dal (U) and AJSU Party. The seat sharing is almost final. Discussion for 1-2 seats is pending. We will announce the alliance after the Pitru Paksha ends.”

    Sarma stated that a formal announcement regarding this matter will be made after the conclusion of ‘Pitri Paksha,’ which ends on October 2. The elections for Jharkhand’s 81-member assembly are scheduled to take place later this year.

    जिस दिन JMM-Cong झारखंड में घुसपैठियों के खिलाफ कार्रवाई शुरू कर देगा, उस दिन मैं इस मुद्दे पर बात करना बंद कर दूँगा। pic.twitter.com/tQZx72WMEX
    — Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) September 28, 2024

    Regarding Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s letter to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, requesting assistance for an in-depth investigation into the deaths of recruitment aspirants during physical tests for excise personnel, Sarma emphasized that the investigation should be conducted by the state government. 

    The incident reportedly claimed the lives of 15 aspirants who participated in the physical assessments. The BJP has criticized Soren’s administration, accusing it of mismanagement and holding the government responsible for the fatalities during the recruitment drive.

    “As the deaths took place in Jharkhand, the first responsibility of investigation lies with the state government. If the chief minister thinks an extensive investigation is required, he should write to the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court for a judicial probe. We will welcome this,” Sarma said.

    Expressing concern over alleged infiltration into Jharkhand, Sarma said that ‘infiltrators have hijacked’ the state.