Burying bitter differences, BJP and JD(U) today decided to contest Jharkhand Assembly elections together under a seat-sharing arrangement but kept away the contentious issue of projecting a Chief Minister.

BJP President Rajnath Singh and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav addressed a joint press conference to announce that BJP would contest 67 seats while JD(U) would contest the rest for the 81-member Assembly.

"BJP and JD(U) have decided to contest the Jharkhand Assembly elections together once again," Singh said, a day after Yadav announced that his party would go it alone and released a list of 19 candidates.

He said the seat-sharing arrangement was reached keeping in view the past performance of the respective parties.

On who would be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the alliance, the BJP chief said, "we are not projecting anyone."

Asked whether the two parties would have the joint manifesto, he said, "we will think over it."

Queried about the list released by JD(U) yesterday, Yadav today said it stands cancelled now.

The two parties had contested the last Assembly elections together and bagged 36 seats (BJP 30 and JD-U 6).

"The alliance is according to the wishes of the people of Jharkhand. I am confident that we will form the government. People have seen BJP-JD(U) government and people," the BJP President said.

Immediately after the announcement of the alliance, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav released the list of the party candidates for the 14 Assembly seats.

The fresh list, released by JD(U), today consisted names of 13 candidates out of the 19 candidates the party had announced yesterday.

According to the fresh list, Kameshwar Nath Das, Khiru Mahto and Jaleshwar Mahto, who is also party's state unit chief, will contest election from Deoghar (ST), Mandu and Baghmara constituencies respectively.

Gopal Krishna Patar alias Raja Peter, who had defeated JMM chief Shibu Soren in Assembly by-polls in January this year, will join the fray from his Tamar(ST) constituency. Peter, a sitting MLA from Jharkhand Party, joined JD (U) recently.

Ramchandra Kesari and Madhu Singh, who were MLAs earlier, will be contesting from Bhawnathpur and Panki constituency respectively.

Party has fielded Sudha Choudhary as its candidate from Chattrapur constituency, from where JD(U)'s leader Radhakrishna Kishore has joined Congress quitting the party.

Corruptions and tribal's rights on Jal-Jangal-Jameen (Water-Forest-Land) will be the main election agenda of his party in the elections, Yadav said.

Saying that corruption was at its peak in Jharkhand, Yadav, without naming Madhu Koda, said that the former Chief Minister was not solely responsible for this. "There were several others who aided him (Koda). We will tell about them".

BJP tonight released a list of five more candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly elections.

It has fielded Nakul Mandal from Bagodar, Pradeep Agarwal (Tundi), Surya Singh Besra (Ghatshila), Anil Orav (Mandar) and Alakhnath Pandey (Garwa).

Ghatshila and Mandar are seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates.

The BJP had announced its list of 58 candidates yesterday.