Congress leader Manju Kumari has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections on October 15.
Ranchi (Jharkhand), October 15: Ahead of the Jharkhand assembly elections, Congress leader Manju Kumari joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party office in Ranchi on Tuesday.
Manju Kumari joined the BJP alongside her father, former MLA Sukar Ravidas, in the presence of Jharkhand BJP chief Babulal Marandi and Himanta Biswa Sarma, the state assembly election co-incharge.
BJP state president Babulal Marandi addressed the upcoming assembly polls in Jharkhand, stating, "I am going to Delhi today for the meeting. The agenda of the meeting will be the Assembly elections in the state."
Marandi also commented on the Jharkhand government's decision to increase the monthly assistance for women from ₹1,000 to ₹2,500, questioning, "They have been giving it for three months; why did they not increase it earlier?"
He further noted, "In the state assembly in 2020, we supported them, and a proposal was passed to provide ₹5,000 assistance to unemployed graduates and ₹7,000 to unemployed postgraduate youth, but nothing has been done so far. No one will trust them. People understand everything."
The Election Commission is set to announce the schedule for the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand on Tuesday.
Officials from the poll body have called a press conference at 3:30 PM in the Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi, to announce the schedule for the assembly polls.
The term of the Maharashtra Assembly will end on November 26, while the Jharkhand Assembly's term will conclude on January 5, 2025.
Jharkhand is anticipated to hold elections for its 81-member legislative assembly by December 2024.
On September 24, a delegation from the Election Commission of India, led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, conducted a comprehensive review of poll preparedness for the upcoming assembly elections in Jharkhand at Ranchi, instructing central and state enforcement agencies to curb the influence of money power.
In the 2019 elections, Jharkhand held polling over five phases, while Maharashtra conducted the elections in just one phase.