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Congress candidate Shilpi Neha Tirkey on Thursday filed her nomination papers for the by-election to the Mandar assembly seat in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and senior Congress leaders Avinash Pandey and Rajesh Thakur were present when Tirkey submitted his nomination papers. The bypolls will be held on June 23 and the counting of votes will take place on June 26.
The bypoll to the assembly seat was necessitated after a special CBI court on April 8 disqualified MLA Bandhu Tirkey, a member of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly. On March 28, a special CBI court in Jharkhand sentenced Tirkey, a former minister in the state government, to three years in jail in a corruption case. Congress candidate Bandhu is the elder daughter of Turkey.
Amid the alleged tussle between Congress and JMM after fielding its candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat, JMM working president Soren said, “Today, Congress party’s Mandar candidate (Shilpi Neha Tirkey) has contested the by-election as a contender from the Grand Alliance. filed his nomination papers. I extend my best wishes to him.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had on Wednesday approved Shilpi’s candidature for the upcoming by-election, an AICC statement signed by Mukul Wasnik said. Candidates can submit their nomination papers till June 6, while the last date for withdrawal of such documents has been fixed as June 9. Other political parties are yet to announce their candidates for the bypolls.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the State Election Committee was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Jharkhand unit president Deepak Prakash. Party officials said that the names of possible candidates were discussed during the meeting.