Congress fields Gourav Vallabh against Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das from Jamshedpur East
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday fielded its national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh to take on Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das in the upcoming assembly elections.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved Vallabh's candidature from the Jamshedpur East assembly constituency, while fielding Mamta Devi from the Ramgarh seat, a party statement said.
With this, the total number of candidates declared so far by the Congress for the Jharkhand elections is 27.
"I am ready for the challenge to take on the chief minister. The people of Jharkhand have been duped and I will emerge victorious in this electoral contest," said Vallabh, who recently went viral on internet after a showdown with BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra at a TV debate.
Jharkhand will vote in five phases, with the first on November 30 and the last on December 20. Results will be declared on December 23.
The Jarkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal had recently announced a pre-poll tie-up for the state with former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren as the alliance's CM face.
The Congress will contest 31 seats 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.
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NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
