Jharkhand polls: Congress releases final list of 3 candidates

New Delhi: The Congress released on Friday its final list of three candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Jharkhand.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved the candidature of Yogendra Baitha from Simaria (SC) seat, Basudev Verma from Bagodar, and Sweta Singh from Bokaro replacing Sanjay Singh, a party statement said.

With this, the Congress has named candidates on the 31 seats it is contesting in the polls to the 81-member Assembly.

The Jarkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had recently announced a pre-poll tie-up for the state, with former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren as the alliance's CM candidate.

The Congress will contest 31 out of 81 seats in the Jharkhand assembly. The RJD will contest on seven seats, while the largest chunk of the alliance share has gone to the JMM, which will contest elections on 43 seats.

Jharkhand will vote in five phases, with the first one on November 30 and the last on December 20. Results will be declared on December 23.