left with no choice after having been denied entry into any of the probable political gamut propping up in Jharkhand ahead of the year-end Assembly polls, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha has made up its mind to walk alone. The Babulal Marandi-led party has called a top level meeting of its central executive committee on October 8 to discuss the options available with it in the given circumstances and the way forward.
The call has been taken after the party received no positive response from the Congress as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha vetoed its entry to form a grand alliance in the lines of Bihar. Also the JVM’s attempt to forge any understanding with the BJP could not materialise as the latter is adamant over merger.
“It is clear that any grand alliance is not going to take place in Jharkhand considering the attitude of the JMM. We cannot wait for the Congress to break its association with the JMM which would cost the Government as well. Thus we have made up our mind to walk alone in the polls and have started our preparation on the most of the seats in the State,” said party general secretary Praveen Singh on Monday.
Inputs suggest the Congress in the latest meeting with Chief Minister Hemant Soren in Delhi had proposed to bring in the JVM in order to form the grand alliance to counter the BJP’s surge. Though, the idea got outrightly rejected by the CM which is quite understandable as both the parties bank on traditional tribal support and have strongholds in Santhal Pargana region.
The JVM also assessed pros and cons of aligning with Sudesh Mahto headed AJSU without any positive. “But the party realised that going with the AJSU is not much beneficial for it. It is because our candidates would get the Kurmi votes only if we field Kurmi candidates. Also, we will get the benefit in only a couple of constituencies. Besides, we have confirmed information that AJSU is desperate to join the BJP camp and even happy with 11-12 seats to contest with,” said a senior leader and MlA of the party.
Amid this, the JVM which polled 15,000 to 20,000 votes in almost all the Assembly segments during the lok Sabha elections has even identified about 47 candidates for the Assembly polls. The meeting besides, stamping to organise a State-level conference possibly in November, will also give clear indication to its workers to focus on local issues.
“30,000 odd votes are going to decide the fate of a candidate in this poll unlike the parliamentary elections where national issues were prevalent. Due to local issues, and multi-polar contest division of votes would also be a major factor. Our strategy is to en-cash the face and leadership of Babulal Marandi as much as possible and we know very well that our performance would depend largely on that,” added Praveen Singh.