Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], October 18 (ANI): Ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in Jharkhand, Congress state in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Friday said that the seat-sharing agreement with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and participation of the Congress in the upcoming elections would be finalised by Saturday or Sunday.
Reacting to the concern over the seat-sharing agreement with the JMM, Ghulam Ahmad Mir said, "We (Congress and JMM) have had three rounds of talks and apart from JMM, we will also have a meeting with our stakeholders by this evening. Whatever our participation will be, it will be decided by tomorrow or the day after."
He further said that the names of the candidates have come from the lowest level.
He further said, "People have given names from the block level. District has collected the names and send to the Pradesh level. The Pradesh level is shortlisting the candidates. The Pradesh Election Committee which is a team of 50 is given an opportunity to suggest the names. Today the meeting went on for two hours and they were given full liberty. The team members who have knowledge about the candidates were allowed to express their views. The Pradesh Election Committee passed a resolution and authorised the party high command that in places where there are more than one probable, the party high command would take the decision on them."
Currently, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is the single largest party in the state, being represented by 30 MLAs. Bharatiya Janata Party has 25 MLAs while Congress has 16. Congress and JMM have announced their alliance for the polls, with seat sharing being finalized soon.
Jharkhand is set to vote in two phases in assembly polls to be held on November 13 and 20 while Maharashtra will go in for a single-phase election on November 20, the Election Commission announced.
Votes will be counted in the two states on November 23.
A total of 2.60 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in Jharkhand and there are 1.31 crore male and 1.29 crore female voters. The state has 11.84 lakh first-time voters and there are 66.84 lakh young voters.
The last date for making nominations for the two phases is October 25 and 29, the date for scrutiny of nominations is October 28 and 30 and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is October 30 and November 1 respectively. (ANI)
