"Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved the name of Sunil Kumar Sahay as Congress candidate for Hatia Assembly seat in Jharkhand," an AICC press release said quoting party General Secretary Oscar Fernandes.
Hatia is one of the 27 assembly constituencies across the country where by-polls are being held. The Election Commission has decided to issue the notification in this regard on May 18.
The last date for filing nominations is May 25, while the scrutiny will take place the next day and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is May 28.
The by-poll to Hatia assembly seat was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Gopal Sharan Nath Sahdeo in 2010.
Apart from Sahay, former Jharkhand Mahila Congress candidate Pratibha Pandey, State Youth Congress President Manas Sinha and a former spokesperson in state Congress Alok Dubey were in the race for the seat.
The bonhomie between Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay and the PCC chief Pradip Kumar Balmuchu is learnt to have clinched the deal in favour of Sunil Kumar Sahay.
The Union Minister had made serious efforts in securing the victory of Balmuchu in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections in the state.
In the Opposition camp, both BJP and AJSU have named their candidates. While BJP has fielded Ramji Lal Sarda, who had lost in the last election to Sahdeo in 2010 by just a few votes, AJSU has named Naveen Jaiswal as its candidate.
In the Rajya Sabha polls, AJSU had supported JMM candidate Sanjiv Kumar, who won the seat while BJP veteran S S Ahluwalia lost the seat getting the votes of only 20 MLAs- 18 of BJP and 2 of JD-U. JMM with its 18 MLAs and AJSU's 5 MLAs had ensured Sanjiv Kumar's victory.
