NEW DELHI: Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and the party’s state election in-charge Om Prakash Mathur are making attempts to stitch an alliance with the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) before the central election committee meeting of the saffron outfit on Saturday evening.
The AJSU has staked claims on 15 Assembly seats in the state, while the BJP appears amenable to cede a maximum of 11 constituencies.
Sources said the AJSU has staked claims on seats, which are currently represented by a couple of incumbent ministers in the Das Cabinet, making the negotiation tricky.
BJP chief and Union Minister Amit Shah, along with the state core group, is learnt to have dwelt on party nominees in the elections late on Thursday night.
“The BJP list is almost final, with a final-round meeting at the residence of Mathur on Friday afternoon. The chief minister has gone back to Ranchi to bring the AJSU on board so that the alliance could be announced Saturday. The chief minister will be back in the national capital for the BJP’s CEC meeting on Saturday evening,” sources said.
Even while half a dozen legislators from the Opposition outfits have joined the BJP recently, the party may not be nominating all of them in the elections to ensure that there’s no rebellion from within the ranks on the lines of Haryana and Maharashtra.