RJD objects to JMM-Cong seat deal in Jharkhand, will it leave alliance?

New Delhi: The seat sharing puzzle remains unsolved for the ruling INDIA-bloc partners, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-Congress-RJD and Communist parties for the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly elections scheduled for November 13 and 20. In fact, it got more complicated after Saturday when two of the biggest constituents of the alliance, JMM and Congress declared distribution of 70 seats between themselves leaving Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD and four streams of communists, with 11 seats to share between themselves. The RJD had contested seven seats in 2019. And although the Communists parties -CPI, CPM, CPI-ML and MCC had contested the last assembly elections separately from the JMM-led alliance, it was expected that they would go together this time after CPI-ML contested the recent Lok Sabha election in alliance with them.

However, Saturday’s “unilateral” announcement by the JMM and Congress has left the RJD and Left parties red-faced and clueless. RJD’s Manoj Jha has publicly expressed his disappointment with the development in Jharkhand. “I have to painfully say that the unilateral decision was taken that RJD will contest from X number of seats. This is not in accordance with the current situation. We have our strengths in different districts and we will request our coalition partners to decide accordingly,” said Jha, adding that the party had identified 16-18 seats where it is competent to defeat the BJP alone. As per him, “all options were open” for the party. Is RJD serious and ready to walk out if taken for granted?

The JMM-Congress deal

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The announcement regarding the distribution of 70 seats between the JMM and Congress came in a press conference in Ranchi where Chief Minister Hemant Sore was accompanied by Ghulam Ahmad Mir, the AICC in-charge of Jharkhand. Declaring the seat-sharing, Soren stressed that a “consensus has been built” and Congress and JMM will together contest on 70 seats. Regarding the distribution of remaining 11 seats, Soren said that details could not be divulged since some of the allies were not present at that time. He also did not clarify as to how many seats out of 70 was the either party contesting. However, according to information coming out of Jharkhand Congress, JMM will contest on 43 seats while Congress will fight on 27 seats, four less than 31 seats it contested the last time. In the 2019 assembly elections, the JMM-led alliance had romped home with 47 seats with JMM winning 30 out of 43 seats it contested, Congress winning 16 out of 31 it contested and RJD winning just one out of seven it contested. The ruling BJP could win only 25 seats out of 79 it contested.

The round of meetings continues

Several rounds of meetings between different sets of INDIA leaders continued the whole day on Saturday. Interestingly, despite putting up in the same city hotel, the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav did not meet. CM Soren came to meet Gandhi at the hotel, but he left without meeting Yadav. However, Yadav along with his two RS MPs, Manoj Jha and Sanjay Yadav met Soren later in the evening at his residence. According to information Yadav laid claim to more seats based on the party’s 2019 performance and Soren was reluctant because of the same – RJD’s performance. Yadav said that apart from contesting on seven seats in 2019, the RJD candidates had stood runners-up on five other seats and so his party’s claim on 12 seats is not an exaggeration but a realistic demand backed with numbers. Soren reminded Yadav that JMM and Congress had better strike rate than RJD which could win just one out of seven it contested. Meanwhile, some mutually agreeable deal in this regard is likely to be announced on Sunday.

No lessons learned from Haryana?

The filing of nominations for the Jharkhand elections in the first phase on November 13, began from Friday. However, just like in Haryana, the Opposition INDIA-bloc continues to haggle over the seat sharing till the last moment and no lessons have been learnt. On the other hand, the BJP-led alliance has declared candidates for 66 seats and there seems to be not much rumblings.