Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday paid a visit to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and discussed seat sharing issue with him in Delhi. The Chief Minister is said to have presented a formula prepared by his party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) after discussion with second-rung Congress leaders such as BK Hariprasad earlier at the meeting.
Sources in the party said that the JMM is eyeing to contest on as many as 40 Assembly constituencies out of 81 in the State. The seats are those where the party had faired first or second during the 2009 elections. “They have presented a list containing the names where the JMM is willing to contest. The list has been first discussed on Wednesday with BK Hariprasad where Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sukhdeo Bhagat and Congress legislative Party leader Rajendra Singh were present and later taken to the meeting of Rahul with the Chief Minister,” said a senior leader accompanying the leaders in Delhi.
After the close-door discussion, Hemant Soren got a call to meet Rahul Gandhi where the matter came for a detailed discussion. Though, the Congress has made it clear to the JMM that the partnership would be on equal footing and adequate representation should also be given to smaller parties like RJD, JD(U) and host of Independents backing the Government in Jharkhand.
“It is the preliminary level talks and a lot of deliberations are still to take place. The fact we have to keep in our minds is that smaller parties are also with us and also newer partners in the form of JD(U) and Trinamool Congress. Sufficient number of seats are to be left for them as well,” said a senior leader of the JMM.
Indications are that smaller parties and Independents in the coalition would not satisfy with less than 15 seats. Detailed discussion comprising all the partners would press the big brothers even further when they would sit on the negotiation table back home. In any case, Congress is the most desperate to form the alliance as bigger as possible in Jharkhand and looking at the present situation it would be pressed the most from JMM and others.
“The alliance has to be there at any cost. The JMM is looking confident to salvage its past performances with the help of its cadres. In the end, it is the Congress which would have to bite the bullet,” said a senior Congress leader