Ranchi, Oct 24 (PTI) Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren of the JMM, Leader of the Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri of the BJP and other assembly poll candidates filed their nomination papers on Thursday.
The CM filed his nomination from the Barhait constituency, while his MLA wife Kalpana Soren submitted the documents for the Gandey assembly seat.
“I got the great privilege of filing my nomination papers from Barhait assembly constituency, the revolutionary land of immortal martyrs Sido-Kanu, Phulo-Jhano and Chand-Bhairav,” Soren said in a post on X.
The JMM executive president also said that he would build a Jharkhand as dreamt by those “brave martyrs and revolutionaries”.
Soren claimed that he never bowed down before the anti-Jharkhand forces and the conspirators, nor would he ever let Jharkhand bow down.
Barhait falls under Santhal Paragana region, which is considered to be a stronghold of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
In the 2019 assembly polls, Soren contested two assembly seats—Barhait and Dumka—in Santhal region and won both the seats.
He won the Barhait seat by defeating BJP’s Simon Malto by 25,740 votes, and Dumka by 13,188 votes by beating saffron party’s Lois Marandi. Later, he vacated the Dumka seat.
Soren’s wife Kalpana won the Gandey bypoll on June 4 by 27,149 votes, defeating her nearest BJP rival Dilip Kumar Verma. The seat fell vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.
BJP legislator and leader of the opposition Amar Kumar Bauri filed his nomination papers from the Chandankiyari assembly constituency, which is reserved for scheduled caste candidates.
Claiming that he would register a comfortable win for the third time, Bauri said that the people of Jharkhand want to change the “corrupt” JMM-led alliance government and form a BJP-led NDA government.
Other political leaders including four Congress ministers Rameshwar Oraon, Irfan Ansari, Dipika Pandey Singh and Banna Gupta also filed their nominations from their respective assembly seats.
Besides JMM leaders, over 50 leaders from the BJP and Congress filed their nominations from various assembly seats.
BJP’s six-time MLA CP Singh submitted nomination papers for the Ranchi assembly seat, while JMM’s Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji filed her papers for the same seat.
“My supporters set a target for me to win the seat by 50,000 votes. I have defeated her (Maji) twice and am going to defeat her again,” Singh said.
Maji said that if she won, she would transform Ranchi into a metro city.
“BJP plays the politics of discrimination. I assure the people of Ranchi that we will ensure development for all,” she said.
Former CM Champai Soren’s son Babulal Soren filed his nomination from Ghatsila seat, while Meera Munda, wife of former union minister Arjun Munda, filed papers from the Potka assembly constituency.
The Jharkhand assembly polls will be held in two phases – November 13 and November 20 – with the counting of votes on November 23.
The nomination process for the first phase started from October 18 and will conclude on October 25, while the same for the second phase began on October 22 and will continue till October 29.