Confusion over seats for parties has created fissures in the Congress-led alliance as the constituent parties, JD (U) and RJD, have come face-to-face on Chhatarpur and fielded their candidates from the constituency. The seat is presently under the fold of the JD-U.
Even as senior leaders of both the Bihar-based parties are working out an amicable solution alongwith the Congress at Delhi State units of JD-U and RJD have come at loggerheads over Chhatarpur. While the RJD has declared Manoj Bhuiyan as the party’s candidate from Chhatarpur, sitting MlA and senior JD-U leader Sudha Choudhary went a step ahead of the lalu Yadav led party and filed nomination today in the presence of senior MlAs and party leaders of Bihar unit.
“When the RJD is part of the alliance they should respect the sanctity of the alliance,” said a senior party leader. The RJD candidate had been given party symbol on Sunday alongwith five other candidates announced by the party. Other candidates to have been nominated by the RJD included- State president Girinath Singh (Garhwa), Janardhan Paswan (Chatra), Vijay Ram (latehar), Ramchandra Singh (Manika) and Sanjay Singh Yadav (Hussainabad). Interestingly, the RJD candidate from Chhatarpur did not file nomination till November 3 despite getting party symbol on Sunday. Nonetheless, the RJD backed its decision of announcing name from Chhatarpur and apparently justified the decision on the basis of an old-time crusader for “secular forces”. Notably, two nominations have been made from the RJD camp—Girinath Singh from Garhwa and Janardhan Paswan from Chatra.
“There is still some time (to dispel confusion over seats. But I would like to say that RJD has made valuable contribution in strengthening secular forces. I would not like to comment further,” added the State president of RJD.
Meanwhile, the JD-U has demanded about 15 seats in the ‘grand alliance’ against the quota of six granted for contesting under the auspices of the Congress party. The Congress has kept 66 assembly seats with itself whereas the RJD has been given 10 seats in Jharkhand. The JD-U is yet to officially declare list of candidates for the assembly election.
Also the Congress that was to announce its second list on Monday, held back the decision primarily because of its Hazaribagh MlA Saurav Narayan Singh. It is leant that Singh is in advanced level of talks with the BJP and likely to be made a candidate of the saffron party. “We have not received any official confirmation about his joining the BJP yet,” said party Jharkhand president Ravindra Rai.