Jharkhand polls: AJSU announces 3rd list of candidates

Jharkhand's ruling NDA constituent, the AJSU Party, on Sunday announced the third list of eight candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand assembly polls, taking the total number of nominees to 27. With this, the NDA allies, the BJP and the AJSU party, will be clashing in 19 constituencies.

The saffron party has announced 72 candidates so far.

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

The AJSU Party has nominated Shalini Gupta to take on Education Minister and BJP candidate Neera Yadav from Koderma seat.

Former JMM MLA Akeel Akhtar, who joined the AJSU Party a few days ago, has been nominated from Pakur, according to the party list, a copy of which has been released to the press.

The other six candidates are Ramjit Ganju (Kanke-SC), Mangal Singh Suren (Jaganathpur-ST), Birsa Munda (Manoharpur- ST), Anant Ram Tudu (Seraikela-ST), Sanjay Jarika (Kharsawan- ST) and Ram Dularbh Singh Munda (Tamar-ST).

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