Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday announced to contest the Assembly elections together, with his party JMM and Congress to fight on 70 seats and on the remaining 11 seats the RJD and the Left parties will contest. He was accompanied by Jharkhand Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir in Ranchi.

After the first round of talks of the Opposition bloc INDIA, Soren addressed a press conference in Ranchi and informed that the Opposition has decided to contest the upcoming Assembly elections together. The details regarding who will contest from which seat will be provided later, he said.

Soren said the JMM-led alliance was confident of retaining power in the state on the back of its development work.

“Like the CM Hemant Soren said, the alliance partners have been continuously holding discussions about candidates winnability. We have taken all the inputs and have held discussions for 70 out of the 81 assembly constituencies, said Mir while speaking to reporters.

On Friday, the NDA revealed its seat allocation, with the BJP contesting 68 seats, AJSU 10, Janata Dal (United) 2, and Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) 1 in Jharkhand.

“As of now, All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) will contest 10 seats, Janata Dal (United) will get 2 seats, and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will contest 1 seat,” said Assam Chief Minister and BJP Jharkhand assembly election co-in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Regarding seat-sharing, Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahai stated, “We are sticking to our initial number as a new partner (CPI(ML)L) has joined us, and we need to allocate seats to them as well.”

In the 2019 Assembly elections, the JMM secured victory in 30 out of the 81 seats, while the Congress won 16 seats, and the RJD secured one seat. These three parties forged a coalition government, enjoying a comfortable majority. The BJP saw a decrease in its seat tally from 37 in 2014 to 25, whereas the AJSU Party, running independently, secured two seats.

Jharkhand will vote in two phases on November 13 and 20. Votes will be counted on November 23.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday condemned the killing of a migrant labourer, hailing from Bihar, in the Shopian district of South Kashmir.

Abdullah expressed grief over the killing of a non-local labourer whose body was found in the Shopian district and said such attacks must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

The body of the labourer, who was identified as Ashok Chauhan, was found in a field in the Wachi area of Zainapora in the south Kashmir district on Friday. Chouhan’s body bore two bullet wounds, according to police.

“Very sorry to hear about the death of Ashok Chouhan at the hands of militants in South Kashmir. These attacks are abhorrent & must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. I send my condolences to the family & loved ones of the deceased,” Abdullah said in a post on X.

In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said the entire nation stands united against such acts. The killing of a labourer from Bihar by terrorists in the Shopian district is extremely disgusting and condemnable, Gandhi said.

“The violence and target killings being carried out by terrorists are unacceptable,” the Congress leader said.

According to reports, the bullet-riddled body of Chauhan was discovered by the locals and they reported it to the police. The police arrived at the scene, assessed the situation, and then took the deceased’s body to the hospital for post-mortem examination. Chauhan was living in the Sangam area of Anantnag.

According to one of Chauhan’s colleagues, they left their rented room at 7 a.m., and he was with them for about an hour. Chauhan received a phone call while they were harvesting corn and informed them that he was going somewhere.

After he didn’t return for some time, they went to look for him. When they called his phone, it kept ringing with no answer, and they later found his body.

Fresh violence broke out in Manipur on Saturday as militants attacked a village in Jiribam district, according to an official.

The militants used sophisticated weapons to open fire on a village near the Borobekra police station around 5 am. They also detonated bombs.

The CRPF and police personnel responded with heavy gunfire. Additional security forces were being sent to the area. As of now, no casualties have been reported.

To ensure safety, elderly people, women, and children are being relocated by the security forces. Borobekra, situated approximately 30 km from Jiribam town, is surrounded by dense forests and mountainous terrain.

The area has experienced several similar attacks since ethnic violence erupted in the state in May last year.

This incident occurred shortly after discussions were held between MLAs of the conflicting Meitei and Kuki communities in New Delhi, aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict.

Earlier in September, Congress MP A Bimol Akoijam raised pointed questions over the Centre’s inaction, suggesting that such a situation would not have been left unaddressed if it happened in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

In an interview with PTI, Akoijam vehemently criticised the Centre’s handling of the situation in Manipur, asking why the government of India was allowing the northeastern state to become like Afghanistan, which he described as a “banana republic”.

“With 60,000 troops stationed in Manipur, the central government should have prevented this crisis from persisting for so long,” Akoijam stated.

“If this were happening in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, or Madhya Pradesh, would it have been allowed to linger? Most people would say no,” he added.

Akoijam urged the Centre to thrash out the issues in the state government, claiming that BJP MLAs were speaking in two different voices on the issue of separate administration.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have called his MLAs and ministers and said ‘this should not happen in India. Manipur is not a part of any Banana Republic, I will not allow this to happen, talk it out, what is the problem,” Akoijam said.