The grand alliance partners on Sunday announced their seat sharing equation for the 17th General Elections in Jharkhand in presence of JMM supremo Shibu Soren, State Congress president Ajoy Kumar, JMM Executive President Hemant Soren and JVM-P chief Babulal Marandi in Ranchi.
The Indian National Congress (INC), which will play the role of a big brother in the grand alliance, will contest seven of 14 Lok Sabha seats, Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee State President Ajoy Kumar said.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) will contest four seats while Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will contest two and one seats respectively, he added.
Addressing the media at the residence of former Chief Minister Shibu Soren, Kumar said that his party will field candidates for Ranchi, Khunti, Lohardaga, West Singbhum, Hazaribag, Dhanbad and Chatra. JMM will field candidates for Dumka, Rajmahal, Giridih and Jamshedpur, while JVM-P will contest from Kodarma and Godda, he added.
The grand alliance has unanimously decided to leave Palamu seat for Lalu Prasad-led RJD. However, RJD in a separate press conference on Sunday said that it may walk out of the alliance and contest Chatra as well as Palamu constituencies.
“We are still in talks with the RJD. There is no question of a friendly contest in any constituency,” said Kumar.
The grand alliance partners have unanimously decided that the INC will play the leading role in the General Elections while JMM will take over the charge of the leading ally in the assembly polls slated later this year.
The seat sharing equation was decided after several rounds of meetings between JMM leaders, JVM-P chief and Congress President Rahul Gandhi in the national capital during the last couple of weeks, sources said.
The JMM had earlier insisted on giving at least one seat to the Communist Party of India (CPI) after its senior leader D Raja met Hemant Soren in Jharkhand seeking participation in the alliance.
“We still want them (CPI) to join us if they can come to a consensus and are ready to leave the Kodarma seat,” Kumar said.
After several efforts in the past to form a grand alliance, the idea has finally become a reality because of the efforts of Guruji (Shibu Soren), Babulal Marandi and Rahul Gandhi, said Hemant.
“It has been finalized that we will not only contest the Lok Sabha elections as a team but also go to assembly polls as allies. A blueprint for the same will be prepared soon,” he said.
In a couple of days, the alliance partners will meet again and decide their course of action, he added.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand’s first Chief Minister Babulal Marandi said that the grand alliance was the need of the hour to combat communal forces.
“The BJP has destroyed the basic democratic structure of the country by influencing constitutional bodies like the CBI. They are spewing communal venom in the society and we have united to prevent further damage,” he said.
Riding the Modi wave, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 12 of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand in 2014. While the JMM won the remaining two seats, the Congress and JVM-P failed to win any seat in Jharkhand.