Cong, JMM deal stuck over two seats

The seat-arrangement between Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Jharkhand for the Lok Sabha elections is almost complete but for two seats: The three parties are yet to agree on who is to contest from Hazaribagh and Koderma.

While Hazaribagh is being held by CPI, Koderma is with Babu Lal Marandi, former chief minister of Jharkhand, who fought as an independent candidate in 2004 and won from there. This year he is fighting from the same seat and on behalf of his newly formed party Jharkhand Vikas Morcha.

Congress officebearer in charge of Jharkhand, Kehav Rao, told Business Standard that talks are almost over. It has been decided that each party will contest the seats they had won in the previous elections, Rao said. While Congress has six seats, RJD has two, JMM has four seats out of the total 14.

Rao said that this leaves two seats — Hazaribagh and Koderma. “We would look at the nature of votes in these seats and take a decision in the next two days,’’ he said.

JMM is pitching for Koderma which it says it lost in the last elections to Marandi and hence it should be considered a JMM seat.

Teklal Mehto, JMM MP from Giridih, said, “We had contested five seats in the previous elections and would like to fight them again. The four seats in which JMM has sitting MPs are Dumka, Giridih, Jamshedpur and Rajmahal.”

Similarly Rashtriya Janata Dal believes that it should be given Hazaribagh as it had shared it with an ally CPI in the previous elections. “Now that there is no alliance with the Left, the RJD would like to contest from this seat, said Dhirendra Agarwal, RJD’s MP from Chatra constituency. RJD also has Palamau constituency.

JMM’s alliance with Congress and RJD is a result of a parallel effort to support it to revive the Assembly which is in suspended animation with governor’s rule in the state. The JMM government could not continue after its leader and then chief minister Shibu Soren (now ailing and admitted in All India institute of Medical Sciences) lost a by-election. None of the UPA allies came to the party’s rescue and the Assembly had to be suspended.

The trio struck a deal last week to stay together and revive the government. Rao refused to comment on this saying that no agreements are allowed when the Assembly has been suspended.

Asked if JMM nominee for chief minister would be supported by the Congress, the JMM leaders said that it was a certainty but no one could talk about it now.