While the members of the grand alliance announced their seat sharing equation in a joint press conference on Sunday, Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) expressed discontentment with the grand alliance’s decision of giving the party only one seat in the upcoming General Elections.
“It will be a blunder if they do not give us the Chatra seat,” said Sanjay Singh Yadav, General Secretary, RJD.
The grand alliance members Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress Party and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) have given only Palamu seat to RJD.
“Even if they do not give us the Chatra seat, we will field our candidate there and have a friendly contest. The party will also try and field candidates for other seats claiming that the RJD enjoys a strong support base in many areas of Jharkhand,” he added.
According to the seat sharing formula out of total 14 Lok Sabha seats, Congress will contest seven seats, JMM will contest four seats and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi led JVM-P will contest two seats.
Congress will field candidates for Ranchi, Khunti, Hazaribag, Dhanbad, Chaibasa, Lohrdagga and Chatra while JMM will contest from Dumka, Rajmahal, Giridih and Jamshedpur and JVM-P from Kodarma and Godda.
The candidates, Yadav said, will be finalized by party president Lalu Prasad.
On the speculations about some senior RJD leaders being in close contact with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Yadav said that it was false news created by some media persons.
“Some media channels aired the news that former State president Giriraj Singh, senior leader Janardan Paswan and Sanjay Yadav will join BJP very soon. It is completely baseless and the party’s State unit is completely united and each leader and worker of the party is dedicated to the party,” he added.