The Mahagathbandhan allies on Sunday unanimously decided to constitute a coordination committee which would plan and execute joint campaigning for all the allies during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Jharkhand.
However, leaders who attended the meeting at Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Supremo Shibu Soren’s residence in Ranchi said that joint campaigning may not happen in Chatra since two allies, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress have fielded candidates here.
“A coordination committee will be constituted to plan and execute joint campaigning for the elections. The allies will unanimously appoint members of the committee tomorrow (Monday),” said Supriyo Bhattacharya, General Secretary of JMM. Representatives of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P), RJD, JMM and Congress attended the meeting on Sunday. While speculations over possible rifts in the alliance were rife soon after RJD and Congress’s dilly-dally over the Chatra candidature, the allies claim to have come to a consensus. Chatra goes to polls on April 29 and it was expected that one of the two allies may withdraw its candidate’s nomination from the constituency. However, it did not happen, and now the constituency will witness a triangular contest between RJD, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. RJD’s State President Gautam Sagar Rana clarified that except for Chatra constituency, the Mahagathbandhan allies will jointly campaign in every other constituency.
“Chatra is the only constituency where we will not campaign together. In all other constituencies the Mahagathbandhan allies will stand united and campaign jointly,” Rana said.
The rift between the Congress party and the RJD over Chatra constituency, however, became evident on Friday after the former clarified that there was no scope a friendly contest here.
As per the seat sharing equation unanimously decided by the bigwigs of the Mahagathbandhan, Congress was supposed to contest seven seats, JMM four, RJD one and JVM-P two. However, RJD was adamant that it would field a candidate in Chatra apart from the Palamu seat, which the Mahagathbandhan decided to give to the party. Now, Congress’s Manoj Kumar Yadav and RJD’s Subhash Yadav will fight against each other in the constituency. Some politicians fear that the contest may harm the grand alliance due to division of Yadav votes.
The Modi wave swept Jharkhand in 2014 and the BJP ended up winning 12 of 14 Lok Sabha seats here. The JMM managed to win Dumka and Godda seats. The alliance was formed this year in a bid to get an edge over the BJP, which still remains one of the strongest contenders in most of the constituencies here.
