Jharkhand BJP leaders hold meeting to discuss Assembly polls strategy

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and other BJP leaders held a meeting with the party's in-charge for elections in the state, O P Mathur, on Thursday to deliberate on their strategy for the Assembly elections.

Five-phase Assembly polls will be held in the state between November 30 and December 20.

Das was also joined by Union minister Arjun Munda, a tribal leader from the state where Scheduled Tribes are present in large numbers, at the meeting.

The BJP is in power the state and an alliance of opposition parties, mainly the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, is making a determined bid to oust the government headed by Das.

With the polls coming on the heels of Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, its result will be keenly followed as political watchers believe that the opposition has been emboldened by the outcome in the two states where its numbers have been better than expectations despite its eventual defeat.

The BJP has set a target of winning 65 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly. It had won 37 seats in 2014.