Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Monday claimed that the party is preparing to contest on at least 12 State Assembly Constituencies in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, which is scheduled to be held at the end of the year.

Addressing a press meet JMM General Secretary and Spokesperson, Supriyo Bhattacharya said that in last five years the party has strengthened its organisational base in Bihar and keeping its organisation base in mind in the neighbouring State the party is gearing up to contest at 12 State Assembly constituencies in the upcoming State Assembly elections under the alliance of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress.   

"Since last five years the party is strengthening its base in 12 seats- Tarapur, Katoria (ST), Manihari (ST), Jhajha, Banka, Thakurganj, Rupouli, Pranpur, Banmankhi, Jamalpur, Pirpanti and Chakai. The JMM candidate won from Chakai in the elections of 2005. The party has good hold in these seats and it will put forward its demand to contest on these seats with other partners of 'Mahagathbandhan' like RJD and Congress. We are sure that we got these seats under the alliance as we allotted seven seats to RJD in Jharkhand and gave ministerial birth to its lone MLA," said Bhattacharya.

The party General Secretary added that the party has been contesting elections on its symbol Bow and Arrow since its inception for the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar, it will approach to Election Commission of India (ECI) to allot its symbol in Bihar to contest the election, which the ECI had seized in Bihar on objection filed by Janata Dal (United).

It may be mentioned here that the State Assembly elections of Jharkhand held in the last months of the previous year JMM, Congress and RJD contested under an alliance called 'Mahagathbandhan'.

In response to a question the party Spokesperson said that either the alliance partner of 'Mahagathbandhan' allot the seats for JMM or the party will be independent to take its own decision and it will field its candidate in the Bihar Assembly elections alone. 

Bhattachrya also congratulated Chief Minister, Hemant Soren for increasing numbers of his followers on social media including twitter and facebook and said that since last six months the followers of the Chief Minister increased to more than 4 lakhs. It shows that the popularity of the Chief Minister is growing rapidly among people, he added.