New Delhi: The Congress blinked on its claim for the Godda seat in Jharkhand to seal an alliance of opposition parties in the state Sunday.
After a lot of back and forth, the Congress will contest on seven seats, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on four and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) (JVM-P), led by former chief minister Babulal Marandi, from two seats.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which is also part of the alliance, is yet to agree to the one seat given to it in the alliance. The RJD wanted to contest from two seats — Palamu and Chatra — but the other alliance partners have agreed to leave only Palamu for the party.
The Left Front, which was in talks with the Congress and the JMM, will not be part of the alliance after it failed to reach an agreement on seats.
Who will fight from where?
The seven seats in the Congress’ kitty include Chaibasa, which the JMM was interested in keeping but eventually agreed to give up. The other six seats are Chatra, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Khunti, Lohardaga and Hazaribagh.
The JMM will contest from Rajmahal, Dumka, Giridih and Jamshedpur.
The JVM-P will contest from Godda and Kodarma seats. Interestingly, Godda was the key sticking point in the seat-sharing arrangement — the Congress wanted it as its candidate had come in second on the seat in 2014, but eventually agreed to leave it for the JVM-P.
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‘Will sort it out with RJD’
Addressing a press conference in the presence of JMM chief Shibu Soren and other alliance partners, former CM and JMM working president Hemant Soren said the parties were trying to convince RJD to agree to contest from Palamu.
“We are talking with the RJD and will sort it out,” Hemant Soren said.
As regards the Left parties, Soren said: “We wanted the Left parties to join the alliance but they have not agreed so far. If they agree even now to join the alliance, we can work out some solution to accommodate them.”
Soren had also met Communist Party of India leader D. Raja in New Delhi earlier this month to convince him to join the alliance.
Ajay Kumar, president of the Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee, said following several rounds of meetings with the alliance partners, it was also decided that the same alliance will contest the Jharkhand assembly elections scheduled later this year.
“While it has been decided that the Lok Sabha elections will be fought under the leadership of the Congress, which is the bigger partner, the assembly elections will be fought under the leadership of the JMM,” Kumar said.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress failed to open its account while the BJP won 12 of the 14 seats in Jharkhand. The JMM won two out of the four seats it contested.
In the assembly elections later that year, the BJP won 37 seats while the JMM bagged 19 seats. The Congress won seven seats, the All Jharkhand Students Union, a BJP ally, secured five seats, while the Marandi-led JVM (P) bagged eight seats. The other five seats were won by smaller parties. Six of the JVM (P) MLAs joined the BJP in February 2015.
Similar alliance won bypolls
The alliance has already tasted some success in bypolls for the Silli and Gomia assembly seats in May 2018. The alliance, helmed by the JMM and including the Congress, RJD, JVM (P), CPI and CPI (M), won both seats.
Also read: Congress plays hardball in alliance talks with JMM, refuses to commit for state polls