NEW DELHI: The announcement of JMM executive president Hemant Soren to contest not less than 42 seats in Jharkhand has put the Congress in a fix over seat-sharing with other opposition parties of the grand alliance.
Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) has decided to go it alone, leaving the JMM-Congress-RJD-Left parties to combine to contest together against the ruling BJP in the state.
The Congress state leadership led by party chief Rameshwar Oraon and other senior leaders like Alamgir and Subodhkant Sahay are camping in Delhi with the screening committee to finalize candidates but there is still no clarity on the number of seats the party may ultimately contest.
“The screening committee met Wednesday-Thursday but candidates could not be finalized as seat sharing is still being worked out. JMM has said it will not contest less than 42 seats. Hence the share of RJD-Left has to be worked out. It has to be done soon as the central election committee will meet later this week for formal approval,” said a senior Jharkhand Congress leader.
JMM is scheduled to contest half of 81 assembly seats while the Congress is looking at 25-30 seats with the rest to be shared between RJD and Left.
Marandi’s JVM(P), unhappy over seats offered, decided to go it alone on all 81 seats, which could divide opposition votes.