Buoyed with the overwhelming response to a party level rally ahead of the West Bengal Assembly election at Jhargram, JMM has announced to contest on 33 seats. Chief Minister Hemant Soren with other leaders of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) recently addressed a huge gathering during a party level rally.

Party’s national general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya, during a media interaction said, “We have strong hold in the bordering areas of Jharkhand and we have decided to contest on 33 seats in the forthcoming Bengal assembly polls. We will reach out to our supporters and give a strong contest.”

Significantly, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had commented that she was hurt that Hemant Soren had addressed a political rally at Jhargram and had advised him to take care of his own State (Jharkhand) as TMC was doing everything for tribals in Bengal.

“We are yet to decide on any pre-poll alliance as of now we may go either with regional parties or even fight alone. We know our strength and the gathering at rally have further motivated us. We are confident that we can win against any party be it TMC or BJP,” said Bhattacharya.

 Significantly, the second rally of Hemant Soren is planned in the second week of February, at Raghunathpur in Purulia district while the third is going to take place at Alipurduar in North Bengal in early March.

 In 2016, JMM had fielded candidates across 23 assembly constituencies in West Bengal, which were spread across Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Birbhum, Darjeeling and Alipurduar districts.

Another party official said that the national level parties have conspired to wipe all the regional parties. In Jharkhand several leaders have bowed down in favour of them. So far, we have identified areas to increase our hold,” said the official.

 “We have presence in several of the constituencies where tribals are in good strength and we are confident of making our presence in the Bengal Assembly election. We want to raise issues concerning tribal populations in these states,” said another official.

He said that the party's major task is to organise a successful public meeting in Kolkata and thereafter will visit all issues pertaining to Bengal elections.