The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha released its first list of 35 candidates for the upcoming assembly polls on Wednesday, fielding Chief Minister Hemant Soren from Barhait and Kalpana Soren from Gandey segments. The assembly polls will be held in two phases -- on November 13 and 20 -- while the results will be declared on November 23.
Hemant Soren is the sitting MLA from Barhait (ST) constituency in Sahibganj district. In the 2019 assembly elections, he won the seat by 25,740 votes over his nearest BJP rival, Simon Malto. His wife Kalpana Soren won the Gandey bypoll by 27,149 votes over her nearest BJP rival, Dilip Kumar Verma. The seat fell vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.
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Of the 35 JMM nominees, Basant Soren, the incumbent chief minister's brother, will contest from Dumka, Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Rabindranath Mahto from Nala, Minister Mithilesh Thakur from Garhwa, Sonu Sudivya from Giridih and Bebi Devi from Dumri. Basant defeated former BJP minister Lois Marandi by over 6,842 votes in party stronghold Dumka, the constituency vacated by his elder brother Hemant Soren after he won Dumka and Barahit in the December 2019 assembly elections and decided to retain the latter.
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Assembly Speaker Mahto won Nala in Jamtara by 3,520 votes, defeating Satyanand Jha of the BJP in the last elections. Mahto had also won the seat in 2005 and 2014. The other candidates announced by the JMM include Dipak Birua from Chaibasa and Kedar Hazara, a three-term sitting BJP MLA who joined the party recently, from Jamua.