Former Jharkhand CMs Babulal Marandi, Hemant Soren meet ahead of assembly polls

Source: indiatoday.in

s Jharkhand is bracing up for the assembly polls towards the end of the year, political parties have already intensified their campaign. It is going to be NDA, led by BJP, versus others in the state.

However the picture is still grey as to whether the allies of opposition will manage to come on a common platform.

The Congress is yet to take a call in the matter.

It is not known whether the party is interested in a pre-poll alliance with all the allies who are against the BJP.

There has been a change of guard and five working presidents were nominated to bring back the party on track which is loosing it’s base in the state.

However party spokesperson Lal Kishore Nath Shahdeo has accepted that talks are on with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

In the prevailing political condition, other allies of opposition have started dialogue among themselves to reportedly forge a formidable alliance to take on the BJP which is riding high on the Modi wave. The saffron party is brimming with confidence after an emphatic win on 12 out of 14 seats in the Lok Sabha elections 2019.

In what is being seen as an effort to break ice two stalwarts of Jharkhand, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) supremo and the first chief minister of the state Babulal Marandi and former chief minister Hemant Soren met at Dhanbad circuit house for more than 25 minutes in a closed door meeting.

Both of them were visibly thrilled post the meeting. Babulal Marandi said that there was nothing to hide. He admitted that he was not against an alliance of like-minded parties.

Hemant Soren reiterated the same. There was no discussion over seat-sharing, Soren said, but when the time comes, everything will be sorted and disclosed to the media.

All is well, Soren said, while dropping a hint that RJD, JMM and JVM could explore the possibilities of contesting the elections under an umbrella.

In 2014, Congress had thrown it’s hat with RJD and JDU in the electoral fray but JMM and JVM had contested on their own.

The major issue which emerges in alliances is seat-sharing. This was the core reason why JMM and the Congress had contested 2009 and 2014 assembly polls without an alliance.

Now, the allies are daring to take on the BJP and whether they will see eye to eye with their partners remains to be seen.

Highly placed sources said that even RJD wants 12 seats and the other allies are opposed to it, citing reasons that they don’t deserve the number of seats they are asking.

Congress wants more seats in Santhal where JMM candidate had won. The allies are headed for a fight over seat-sharing before going to polls. It would be interesting to see who wins the race.Al