Jharkhand polls 2019: Congress, JMM join hands; Hemant Soren to be CM face

The Congress on Friday announced that it will be contesting the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly polls in alliance with the Jharkahnd Mukti Morcha (JMM).

In a joint press conference here, Congress Jharkhand in-charge RPN Singh and JMM executive president Hemant Soren announced the seat sharing formula also.

"JMM, Congress and RJD will fight on 43, 31 and 7 seats respectively," said Singh. "Hemant Soren will lead the alliance and will be the face of the Chief Minister. He had led the alliance as Chief Minister in the past as well."

Despite being in Ranchi, RJD president Lalu Yadav's eldest son Tejashwi Yadav stayed away from the press conference. Yadav had met Hemant Soren on Thursday night in Ranchi. Sources in the RJD said that the party wanted to fight on more seats.

"The decision about seat sharing in the state got impacted as RJD chief Lalu Yadav is in jail. They have some demands and we will resolve those after consultation with Lalu Yadav," Hemant Soren said.
 

Singh said, "Many questions were raised on the Congress-JMM alliance, now we have announced that we will contest the elections together. We also answered the leadership question by announcing Hemant Soren as the Chief Ministerial candidate."

He added that there would be no friendly fight among the alliance partners.

But the grand alliance partners seem to be sharing an uneasy relationship as earlier Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) president Babulal Marandi announced to contest the polls on all 81 Assembly seats and now the RJD is also not happy with the seat sharing formula announced by the Congress and JMM. The Left will also be fielding its candidates in the Assembly polls.