The Congress-led alliance in Jharkhand has reached a seat-sharing agreement ahead of the Assembly Elections, scheduled to be held in two phases next month.

The seat-sharing formula was finalised after a meeting of the Central Election Committee of the Congress Party at the Congress Headquarters in Delhi.

As per the agreement, Congress will contest on 29 seats in Jharkhand, while Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha will contest 41 seats, RJD 6 and Left 4. One more seat will be allotted to a minor party.  

The Congress leaders on Monday held discussions regarding potential candidates for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections.  

The meeting, held at the party headquarters in the national capital, was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary (in-charge, Organisation) K C Venugopal, Jharkhand Congress chief Keshav Mahto Kamlesh and AICC in-charge of state Ghulam Ahmad Mir, among other senior leaders from the state.

Earlier on Saturday, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Congress had announced their alliance for the elections. 

“The INDIA bloc will contest the Jharkhand Assembly polls together. It has been decided during the seat-sharing talks with the allies that the Congress and the JMM will field candidates in 70 of the 81 seats, Soren had said after meeting with the alliance partners. 

The two parties will contest 70 out of the 81 seats in the state assembly, while the remaining seats will be contested by other coalition partners.

The Assembly polls will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20. The votes will be counted on November 23.

The BJP-led NDA also announced its seat-sharing formula among its partners on Friday. The BJP will contest 68 seats, the AJSU Party 10, the JD(U) two and the LJP (Ram Vilas) one.

Filing of nomination papers for the 43 assembly constituencies of Jharkhand, which are going to polls on November 13 in the first phase, began on Friday and will continue till October 25.

In 2019 assembly polls, the JMM-led alliance won 47 seats in the Jharkhand Assembly, including 30 of the JMM and 16 of the Congress.

The BJP had secured 25 seats, the JVM-P three, the AJSU Party two, the CPI-ML and the NCP one each, and two seats were bagged by independents.