The much-hyped BJD-JMM pact for Mayurbhanj and Sundergarh districts may not see the light of the day, given JMM high command Sibu Soren seeing red to State JMM president Sudam Marandi’s unilateral action.
Besides, both the parties are unable to reach at an agreement over seat sharing in both the districts. While BJD only wants to leave those seats to JMM where its position is a bit weak, JMM is driving a hard bargain to get as many more seats as possible than the ruling party agrees upon. The BJD leadership has its own limitation as it is facing a ground swell of dissent from the party’s rank and file in the two districts over conceding to the JMM demand on sharing seats.
There are seven Assembly seats in Sundergarh district with BJD having secured only two seats such as Raghunathpali and Rourkela in 2009 polls. Transport Minister Subrat Tarai represents Raghunathpali, while former Minister Sarada Nayak represents Rourkela seat. Of the rest five, three seats such as Talsara, Sundergarh and Rajgangpur seats are represented by Congress MlAs, while George Tirky had own from Biramitrapur as an Independent and Bhimsen Choudhury from Bonai seat as a BJP candidate. Now Tirky is in Samata Kranti Dal and Choudhury has switched over to Congress. The four Congress MlAs are Praffulla Majhi (Talsara), Joges Kumar Singh (Sundergarh) and Gregory Minz (Rajgangpur). By having a tie-up with the JMM, the BJD wants to make a better performance this time than the past and strengthen its base in the tribal-dominated district.
In Mayurbhanj district, however, the BJD position is very strong with the regional party having won eight of the total nine Assembly seats.
Congress’s Shyam Charan Hansada is representing Rairangpur seat. The BJD MlAs from the rest eight are Kamal Kanta Nayak (Jashipur), Ram Chandra Hansda (Sarskana), Sarijini Hembram (Bangiriposi), Bijay Kumar Nayak (Karanjia), Shrinath Soren (Udla), Monoranjan Sethi (Badasahi), Sanad Marndi (Baripada) and Praveen Chandra Bhanj Deo (Moroda).
In the1999 and 2004 elections, the JMM had given a tough contest to the BJP-BJD combine in Mayurbhanj district. However, in 2009 the JMM glamour wore off and BJD after breaking alliance with the BJP had won eight seats. The JMM had fielded its candidates in all the nine seats but failed to win anywhere. Because of split in vote, the BJD had taken the maximum advantage. In the last PRI polls also, the JMM’s performance was discouraging. Even many JMM leaders had switched their allegiance to the BJD and joined the ruling party serving a hard blow to their parent party.
State JMM chief Marandi now feels that a pact with the BJD would surely be rewarding to the JMM and may change the party’s fortune in the coming twin elections.
Similarly, the BJD also feels that the pact would help prevent split in the non-Congress and non-BJP votes and make BJD closer to the predominant tribal base in the district. But still the pact looks a remote possibility.
While Marandi has been told in clear terms by the party boss either not go for the alliance or leave the party, the BJD ticket aspirants and grassroots workers in Mayurbhanj district are averse to leaving even a single seat to the JMM by making an alliance.
JMM is a partner of Congress in Jharkhand and Sibu Soren’s son is the Chief Minister there. This is the reason why the JMM boss can’t afford to have a tie-up with the BJD in Odisha where Congress is its main opponent.
Be that as it may, since many leaders from other parties have joined the BJD in view of getting ticket and winning the polls capitalising on the Naveen Patnaik wave, the possibility of a section of State JMM leaders breaking away and joining the BJD cannot be ruled out.