Congress, JMM to Contest 70 of 81 Seats, RJD Angry

NEW DELHI/RANCHI: A day after the BJP-led NDA announced its seat-sharing pact with allies for Jharkhand polls, the Congress and the JMM on Saturday reached an agreement to contest on 70 seats, leaving 11 seats for the RJD and the Left parties. The “unilateral” announcement of the seat deal by the JMM and the Congress has “miffed” the INDIA bloc constituent RJD, with its leaders calling the offer disappointing, saying "all options are open" to the party.

Announcing the seat-sharing pact in the presence of Congress general secretary in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir in Ranchi, Jharkhand chief minister and JMM working president Hemant Soren said that the further details on seats to be contested by each alliance partner will be announced soon in consultation with all the allies.

"The INDIA bloc will contest the Jharkhand Assembly polls together. It has been decided during the seat-sharing talks with the allies that the Congress and the JMM will field candidates in 70 of 81 seats," Mr Soren said, adding that the decision was taken after consultations with allies and candidates will be announced soon.

Expressing confidence that the JMM-led alliance is confident of retaining power in the state, Mr Soren said that the alliance will contest the election on development works done in the last five years.

The conspicuous absence of other alliance partners, particularly the RJD, at the press briefing to announce the seat-sharing agreement brought to fore the brewing rift in the alliance ahead of the impending Assembly polls. The RJD is upset over the unilateral seat-sharing agreement by the two major constituents.

Expressing dissatisfaction, the RJD said that "all options are open" to the party. "We express our disappointment over the offer of seats to us. The decision is unilateral," RJD spokesperson Manoj Kumar Jha said, adding, "We were not consulted. The RJD has identified at least 15 to 18 seats in Jharkhand where it has the potential to defeat the BJP on its own.”

Mr Jha also said several senior RJD leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, were in Ranchi and held a meeting this morning. "A proper consultation should have been done before declaring the seats... No political party can reject the sentiments of its voters and supporters... We have enough strength," he said.

In the last election, the RJD won one seat out of seven contested. RJD MLA Satyanand Bhokta is a minister in the Hemant Soren Cabinet.

Currently, the strength of the Assembly stands at 74, with the JMM-led ruling alliance having 44 members.

Two JMM legislators, Nalin Soren and Joba Majhi, are now members of Parliament, while Jama legislator Sita Soren resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket. Additionally, Borio MLA Lobin Hembrom was recently disqualified under the anti-defection law.

Similarly, the BJP's strength has decreased to 23, with two of its MLAs -- Dhulu Mahto (Baghmara) and Manish Jaiswal (Hazaribag) -- now serving as MPs.

Mandu MLA Jaiprakash Bhai Patel, who joined the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections, was also disqualified under the anti-defection law.

In 2019, the JMM-led alliance won 47 seats in Assembly polls, including 30 of the JMM and 16 of the Congress, while the BJP had secured 25 seats, JVM-P 3, AJSU 2, CPI-ML 1, NCP 1 and Independents 2 seats.

The NDA on Friday announced its seat-sharing formula among its partners under which the BJP will contest 68 seats of the 81 Assembly seats in the state, leaving the rest for its allies.

Filing of nomination papers for 43 assembly constituencies of Jharkhand, which are going to polls on November 13 in the first phase, began on Friday and will continue till October 25.

The Assembly polls for 81 seats will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, and counting will take place on November 23.