Jharkhand polls: BJP, AJSU continue to name candidates against

After its NDA ally AJSU party announced candidate against a BJP minister Amar Kumar Bauri from Chandankiyari, the saffron party on Saturday hit back nominating its nominee on a seat from where All Jharkhand Students Union minister is in the field.

In its fourth list of three candidates announced on Saturday and a copy of which was released to the media, the BJP nominated Mochiram Bauri from Jugsalai (SC) seat against AJSU leader Ram Chandra SahisSahis, who is Water Resources minister in the state.

The other two names of the BJP in the fourth list are Sudhir Sundi (Jaganthapur-ST) and Reeta Devi Munda (Tamar-ST), taking the BJPs total contestants to 72 for the five-phase polls to the 81-member Jharkhand assembly.

The AJSU party headed by Sudesh Mahto has already announced 19 candidates, 15 of whom will be clashing with the BJP contestants along with others.

The 15 constituencies where AJSU and BJP candidates will be pitted against each other along with rest of the nominees include Chandankiyari, where Mahto's party has fielded former minister Uma Kant Razzak against Bauri.

The elections are scheduled between November 30 and December 20 in Jharkhand and counting will take place on December 23.

Ruling NDA allies- BJP and AJSU party- who have been part of all the governments of the coalition in Jharkhand since it was carved out of Bihar in 2000 have not achieved seat-sharing agreement so far despite several rounds of talks between the leaders of the two parties at different levels.

BJP has named 72 candidates so far and only nine seats are left out of the total 81 assembly segments.