JD(U) to contest all 81 seats in Jharkhand, calls meeting of its leaders in Ranchi on Nov 7 to finalise candidates

PATNA: Hours after the Election Commission announced the schedule for Jharkhand assembly polls, Bihar’s ruling JD(U) on Friday reiterated that it would contest from all 81 seats against the BJP, despite being its ally in Bihar.
Nitish Kumar-led party also decided to convene a meeting of its senior leaders in Ranchi on November 7 to discuss poll strategies and finalise candidates for different constituencies.
“JD(U) will contest from all 81 seats in Jharkhand on its own without forming alliance with any party. Though we have alliance with the BJP in Bihar, we have decided to go solo in Jharkhand and put up our candidates against the BJP and its ally-- the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU),” JD(U)’s in-charge for Jharkhand and Bihar’s social welfare minister Ram Sewak Singh told TOI on Friday.
He said, JD(U)’s all senior leaders from across Jharkhand would gather in Ranchi on November 7 and take a final shape to the poll strategies.
“All probable candidates have also been asked to attend the Nov 7 meeting. the party will take some crucial decisions at the meeting,” JD(U)’s co-in-charge for Jharkhand Arun Singh told TOI.
However, another senior leader, who didn’t want to be identified, revealed that the JD(U) top leadership had already finalized candidates for certain seats. The name of candidates for the first three phases will be announced on November 7.
Earlier on September 7, JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had sounded the bugle for assembly polls in Jharkhand by addressing a meeting of the party workers in Dibdih area in Ranchi.
JD(U)’s Jharkhand unit president and former MP Salkhan Murmu, who is currently in Delhi, said his party would seek votes in Jharkhand citing Nitish Kumar’s development model in Bihar.
Murmu said the JD(U) has already passed a political resolution demanding increase in reservation for different communities in Jharkhand. “We will seek votes to increase quota of different communities,” he said.
In a political resolution passed at its state-level workers’ meeting held in the presence of its national president Nitish Kumar in Ranchi on September 7 this year, the JD(U) demanded 32% quota of Scheduled Tribes (ST), 14% for Scheduled Caste (SC), 27% for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 10% for Economically weaker section (EWS) among the unreserved category in the jobs of Jharkhand government.
Jharkhand government currently provides 26% quota to ST, 10% to SC, 14% to OBCs and 10% to EWS, total 60% to different communities.
As per the JD(U)’s political resolution, the party wants to increase the ST’s quota to 32% from existing 26%, (an increase of 6%); the SC’s quota to 14% from existing 10% (increase of 4%) and the OBC’s quota to 27% from the existing 14% (increase of 13%).