The Congress on Tuesday announced its second list of candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections, taking the total number of seats announced to 25 of the 31 it has got in seat-sharing with the JMM and the RJD as part of the opposition alliance.
The second list of 19 candidates includes sitting legislators, a bureaucrat, a turncoat besides new faces, which sources said could make some among ticket probables turn rebel.
Sitting legislators Alamgir Alam, Irfan Ansari, Badal Patralekh and Naman Vikshal Kongari have been repeated from Pakur, Jamtara, Jarmudni and Kolebiera, respectively. Among the party veterans who have been fielded again include former minister Rajendra Singh, Mannan Mallick and Jaleshwar Mahto.
Sources said Singh was pushing for candidature of his son, but the party denied it. However, the generation next did make a mark on the list with Amba Prasad Sahu, daughter of sitting legislator Nirmala Devi, from Barkagaon. The seat is a stronghold of the family as it was represented by Yogendra Saw, husband of Nirmala Devi. Saw is currently jailed in a criminal case.
Umashankar Akela, a BJP leader who joined the party recently, has been fielded from Barhi after sitting Congress legislator from the seat, Manoj Yadav, joined the BJP and has been fielded from his traditional seat by the saffron party. Akela lost to Yadav in 2014 assembly election.
Former IPS Rajiv Kumar, another prominent face which caught the ticket probables by surprise, has been fielded from Kanke, a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes, in Ranchi. Party sources said, the decision could backfire.
“Kumar had joined the Congress ahead of the 2019 assembly elections. He was one of the front runners from Palamu Lok Sabha seat. However, the seat was allotted to the RJD during the seat sharing. He had now been compensated by giving an assembly ticket. However, Suresh Baitha, Congress candidate who got around 45,000 votes in 2014 assembly election is likely to contest again,” said a Congress leader.
The party is expected to announce candidates for the remaining six seats, including one against chief minister Raghubar Das from Jamshedpur East soon.
JVM-P fields Pradeep Yadav
Laying to rest rumours around the future of lone JVM-P legislator Pradip Yadav, the party had named the five-time legislator its candidate from Poraiyahat in Santhal Parganas. The JVM-P, which broke away from the opposition grand alliance and has decided to contest assembly election alone, released a list of 37 candidates on Tuesday. Last week, the party had announced a list of nine candidates, mostly for seats going to polls in the first phase.
