EC to announce schedule for Jharkhand Assembly elections today

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will announce the schedule for Jharkhand assembly elections on Friday.

The tenure for 81-member Assembly is ending on 5 January.

In 2014, the BJP, which won 35 seats formed the government along with All Jharkhand Students' Union (AJSU) which had won 5 seats and Raghubar Das took over as the Chief Minister.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) finished second in the tally with 17 seats while Congress was decimated to just six assembly seats.

This will be the fourth Assembly election in Jharkhand since the state was carved out in 2000.

BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won 12 out of 14 parliamentary seats in 2019 General elections.

Earlier in the run-up to polls, five MLAs from opposition parties joined the BJP last month.

Among the five, Baharagora MLA Kunal Sarangi and Mandu MLA JP Bhai Patel are from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

Bhawanathpur MLA Bhanu Pratap Shahi ditched Nav Jawan Sangharsh Morcha. Lahardagga MLA Sukhdev Bhagat and Barhi MLA Manoj Yadav were from Congress.

Jharkhand will also be the third-BJP ruled state going to polls this year. Last month, polling held for Assembly election of Haryana and Maharashtra.

In Haryana, BJP fell short of the majority mark but stitched alliance with Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and formed the government. While BJP-Shiv Sena alliance emerged victorious in the polls but the government formation is pending as both are yet to iron out their differences.