RANCHI: With the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners in Jharkhand gearing up to field their candidates separately for the Assembly elections, political experts said it is the rapport that a candidate enjoys with the people of his respective constituency and not the mass base of any party that will be the difference between winning and losing.
Apart from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), three other NDA partners — All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Janata Dal-United (JDU) — are in the fray separately in some seats.
The partners decided to pit themselves against each other after a breakdown in seat-sharing talks.
While the BJP and AJSU have fielded faces against each other in some seats, the JDU has decided to go solo in all constituencies.
The seat-sharing talks between the BJP and LJP broke down earlier this month after the Chirag Paswan-led party demanded six seats and the former offered only one. Paswan later announced that his party would go it alone in all 50 seats in fray.
“With consensus on seat sharing between allies, a division in vote share is inevitable. In that scenario, it will be the image of the candidates and their personal rapport with voters that will be decisive in the end,” a BJP functionary said.
Airing a similar view, an AJSU leader said that the winability of a candidate will hold the key in the event of division of votes in a multi-cornered contest.
“Voters will be confused if allies contest separately and will then be down to personal charm that a candidate can work on voters that will win him the day,” an AJSU leader said.