With seat sharing talks still going on in Jharkhand for the two phase assembly polls, the Congress has geared to highlight the state government’s ‘Maiyaan Samman Scheme’ as well as to raise the issue of ‘Samvidhaan’ during its campaigning.
The development comes a day after Congress announced its first list of 21 candidates in the mineral rich eastern state, where it is in alliance with the Hemant Soren led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
Congress has named its state finance minister Rameshwar Oaron, former state unit chief Dr Ajoy Kumar, Banna Gupta, Irfan Ansari, Purnima Niraj Singh, Amba Prasad Sahu, Deepika Pandey Singh, Mamata Devi, Ajay Nath Shahdeo among others.
A top party source said that the Congress will be highlighting the works of the coalition government in the state and promote the schemes it brought in last five years.
The party source said that the Congress will highlight the ‘Maiyaan Samman Scheme’ in the state which earlier provided Rs 1,000 per month to women between 18 to 50 years.
The Hemant Soren government in its Cabinet meeting on October 14 announced to increase the amount of scheme to Rs 2,500 per month, which will be applicable from December.
The party source further said that Leader of Opposotion Rahul Gandhi had visited Ranchi and addressed the Samvidhaan Samman Sammelan on October 19, thus party will be highlighting the issue of the Constitution in the state. This is felt by Congress leadership as the BJP has been raising the issue of Rohingyas in Jharkhand and decline in population of tribals, Hindus in the state.
The source said that to cater the polarized campaign of the BJP, the Congress will highlight the Constitution as it has got more prominence in the state where there is a big chunk of population of tribals, dalits, Christians and other marginalized group.
The source also said that the party will be also highlighting several other schemes of the state government as most of the poor families are receiving at least Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 as part of different schemes, which is proving the good will of the JMM-Congress government.
Polling for the 81 member assembly will take place in two phases. Polling for 43 seats in first phase will take place on November 13 while for the rest of the 38 seats, polling will take place in second phase on November 20. Counting of votes will take place on November 23.