Amid pressure being built from the State BJP leaders for not taking AJSU along, both parties finally came to a consensus on seat sharing for the Assembly elections in the State. The AJSU has reportedly agreed on eight seats while the rest of the seats will go to the BJP.
The BJP released the list of 63 candidates including the newly joined Congress MlA Anant Pratap Deo, JVM MlAs Dhullu Mahto and Satyendra Tiwari along with former MlA Radha Krishna Kishore. A meeting of the BJP Central Election Committee in the national Capital on Sunday finalised the list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.
Hatia Assembly seat, which proved to be a hurdle during the talks, went to the BJP to be contested by Seema Sharma while the party is yet to announce the candidate for Jugsalai seat. According to sources in the party, the AJSU was reluctant to give up Hatia and Jugsalai seats to the BJP which it believed to be its stronghold won by Naveen Jaiswal and Ramchandra Sahis, respectively.
According to party sources, four sitting MlAs of the BJP may be denied tickets for the upcoming Assembly elections while merely two or three MlAs who have joined the saffron brigade from the JVM will be allowed to contest on BJP ticket. As many as seven MlAs from JVM had defected from the party to join the BJP ahead of the polls.
Earlier, the talks with the AJSU had almost failed on Sunday after which AJSU chief Sudesh Mahto returned empty-handed after the talks with the senior party leaders failed in Delhi as they could not reach any consensus over seat sharing. According to party insiders, Mahto had been claiming 15 seats while the BJP was not ready to give more than nine seats to it. According to sources in the party, Hatia and Jugsalai seats also proved to be a spoilsport during talks.
The BJP wanted Hatia and Jugsalai seats but the AJSU was not ready to give up the seats which are being represented by two of its sitting MlAs - Naveen Jaiswal and Ramchandra Sahis. Mahto, however, again flew to Delhi late in the evening, after being called by the BJP leadership and agreed to the conditions put forth by the BJP.
The State BJP leaders had been opposing the talks of alliance citing heavy losses to the party if it goes into polls with AJSU. Ranchi MP Ram Tahal Chaudhary expressing annoyance among the State party cadres had written a letter to national BJP president Amit Shah.