Ranchi, Oct 23 (PTI) As many as 93 candidates, including minister Deepak Birua, BJP’s Satyendra Nath Tiwari and Gopal Krishna Patar of JD(U), filed their nomination papers on Wednesday for the first phase of the Jharkhand assembly elections, an official said.
With these, the total number of nominations filed in various assembly constituencies has reached 150, he said.
Altogether 43 assembly constituencies will go to polls in the first phase on November 13.
For the second round of polls on November 20, five candidates filed nominations on Wednesday, he said.
The nomination process for the second phase of polls for 38 assembly seats started on Tuesday.
Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar said, “Altogether 93 candidates filed their nomination papers on Wednesday for the first phase, while five for the second round of polls.” JMM legislator and state Transport Minister Deepak Birua filed his nomination papers from the Chaibas assembly constituency, while party MLA Ramdas Soren submitted the document from Ghatshila.
Birua claimed that the JMM-led government launched a series of welfare schemes for people in the state and he was confident to win the seat with a big margin.
He won the Chaibasa assembly seat in 2019, defeating BJP’s JB Tubid by a margin of 26,159 votes.
BJP’s Satyendra Nath Tiwari filed his nomination papers from Garhwa assembly seat in the presence of Union Minister Satish Chandra Dubey.
Tiwari will contest against JMM candidate and Jharkhand minister Mithilesh Kumar Thakur, who had defeated him by 23,522 votes in the 2019 assembly polls from the seat.
“I will win the seat with a big margin, as this time I find no challenge from the seat,” Tiwari told reporters after filing his nomination papers.
He claimed that Thakur, the state drinking water and sanitation department minister, did “nothing” for the people of the constituency. “There are several charges of corruption against him,” he alleged.
Dubey claimed that the BJP would register a Haryana-like victory in Jharkhand and would form a government with a full majority.
Another BJP nominee Kamlesh Singh, who recently shifted to the saffron party from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), filed his nomination papers from Hussainabad assembly seat in Palamu district.
“I feel proud of getting an opportunity to contest the polls on a BJP ticket. I will win the seat with a big margin of over 25,000 this time,” Singh said.
He had defeated RJD’s Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav by 9,849 votes in the 2019 assembly polls from the seat on an NCP ticket.
Gopal Krishna Patar, alias Raja Peter, filed his nomination for the Tamar assembly seat as a nominee of Janata Dal (United).
The nomination process for the first phase will conclude on October 25 and for the second phase on October 29.
Post-announcement of the assembly elections, a total of Rs 16.67 crore in cash and goods have been seized in the state, Kumar said.
He said 14 FIRs have been lodged so far for violation of the Model Code of Conduct and action is being taken as per the rules. PTI SAN RG SAN BDC
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