Unsure of winning considerable number of seats on its own during the Assembly election in immediate future, the State Congress has got a task at hand—materialise backseat driving formula of the Central leadership.
The party high command looking at the dividends it got recently in Karnataka is ready to lower its chips down even further. It is learnt that ready to play second fiddle to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and accepting leadership of Hemant Soren the Congress would not press ‘unreasonably’ during the seats sharing pre-poll and preconditions for post-poll.
“There is a new team in Jharkhand under the leadership of Dr Ajoy Kumar who has confidence of the high command. The PCC chief wants to give JMM every space it needs. He has already gone ahead accepting Hemant Soren as face. large say in seat sharing is also going to be of JMM. Not only that if the Congress feels that other likeminded allies coming together are unhappy then it would concede more,” said a party functionary at AICC.
The sense is prevailing and has been percolated down the line that at any cost the party has to stop the BJP from gaining power again and it should be ready to sacrifice its history, strengths and even organisation for the time being. Nonetheless, the idea has equal number of takers and no-takers.
“There were resistances when the idea was floated for discussion. Those at the helm like the PCC chief and people around him were in the favour of the party backing the JMM since they see it a key to come into power. While those on the fringe opposed it since they feared they would be pushed even further due to lack of space. A section was also opposed to the decision getting made public so early which may create a stampede like situation among workers and in the organisation when polls approach,” said he.
Sources in the party confided that the central leadership was clear not only for Jharkhand but for other states as well to go with likeminded forces in order to defeat the agenda of the BJP. “This has more or less been decided. In the internal meetings issues like threat to the institutions and democracy, banks, probe agencies are discussed and the anti-BJP parties are being told to forgo their personal differences for the time being. Similar formula is for Jharkhand also where parties like JMM and JVM have not been on the same page ever. But they have been persuaded to come closer even at the cost of the Congress,” said a senior leader and office bearer in the PCC.
The formula has also started making inroads with the JMM accepting role of the Congress as a pivot of the Opposition unity. “Congress is needed to bring all anti-BJP forces together. The JMM is also looking towards dissatisfying allies of the BJP to join hands and oust it. They may get more than what they got with them,” said JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya indicating clearly to the parties like AJSU and JD-U.