Ranchi: Polling in Jharkhand to elect a new government ended on a peaceful note on December 20. The assembly polls to the 81-member assembly in the state were held in five phases, as well as the 2014 elections.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power and an alliance of opposition parties, mainly the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, are making a determined bid to oust the government headed by Chief Minister Raghubar Das.
Prominent heavyweights in a field of contestants include Chief Minister Raghubar Das, BJP leader Arjun Munda, JMM leader Hemant Soren.
Some of the key players in the Jharkhand assembly elections are:
Raghubar Das: He is the first state chief minister to have completed the full term of five years in the state, long plagued by fractured mandate and unstable governments. Jharkhand's only non-tribal CM is likely to claim a second term as chief minister. The saffron party has asserted that it has provided a stable, clean and development-oriented government in Jharkhand, with the opposition claiming that the state's progress has stalled under its rule.
Das will be contesting from his home constituency of Jamshedpur East against his former colleague Saryu Roy, who for the first time will be
contesting from Das' constituency. Roy decided to contest as an independent candidate after BJP denied to award him a ticket to contest from the Jamshedpur West constituency.
Arjun Munda: Surprisingly, this BJP leader is gaining popularity to become the next chief minister in the state, even though the party has not portrayed him as a prospective candidate.
Munda lost the last state election in Jharkhand in 2014, but he is still currently the Minister for Tribal Affairs in the central government. He is popular among tribal people in the region for a long time.
Hemant Soren: The sitting CM Raghubar Das is the most popular among all Chief Minister candidates, closely followed by rival Hemant Soren from the JMM.
Former Jharkhand CM is contesting from two constituencies-Dumka and Barhet. Earlier, Soren won Barhet constituency in 2014 and lost Dumka to Louis Marandi.
Saryu Roy: He will be for the first time contesting as an independent candidate from Raghubar Das home constituency Jamshedpur East. He filed his nomination after quitting the cabinet as well as the state assembly.
Saryu Roy had exposed several corruption scandals resulting in the conviction of former Chief Ministers Lalu Yadav, Jagganath Mishra and Madhu Koda.
Sudesh Mahto: All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) President is contesting elections from the Silli constituency. Earlier, the party had an alliance with BJP in the state which was dissolved this month. However, Mahto said that the party would be open to forming new alliances post the polls.
Soren is the chief ministerial candidate of the opposition JMM-Congress-RJD alliance. He took over as Deputy Chief Minister of state on 29 December 2009. Mahto won the first election in 2000 at the age of 25 and is known as the youth face of Jharkhand.
Babulal Marandi: State's first Chief Minister Babu Lal Marandi left the BJP in 2006 to form his own party. Jharkhand Vikas Morcha president lost the parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2019. And in the 2014 Assembly elections, he lost both from Dhanwar and Giridih.
This time, Marandi is contesting only from Dhanwar. The assembly election will determine the political future and the fate of chief ministerial ambitions of JVM chief Babulal Marandi.
Gaurav Vallabh: Congress fielded its national spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh against BJP stalwart Raghubar Das in the assembly polls. Vallabh, who taught at XLRI in Jamshedpur, is known for his communication skills.
Also Read: Cong-RJD-JMM front-runners to form govt in J'khand, predict Exit Polls
