Jharkhand elections: Seat deal ready, Soren to be CM again, says RJD
Speaking to reporters in Ranchi, Yadav said the INDIA bloc “stands united” and added that Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren will be the chief minister again.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday said the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) have arrived at a consensus on the sharing of seats in Jharkhand, which would be announced soon, even as parties released their respective lists of candidates and began the process of filing nominations for the next month’s assembly elections.
Speaking to reporters in Ranchi, Yadav said the INDIA bloc “stands united” and added that Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren will be the chief minister again.
The ruling INDIA bloc in the eastern state is led by the JMM and comprises the RJD, the Congress and the CPI(ML). Elections for the 81-member assembly are scheduled to be held in two phases on November 13 and 20. The filing of nominations for the first phase (43 seats) began on October 18 and will conclude on November 25. The nomination process for the second phase (38) began on Tuesday and will conclude on October 29.
“The INDIA bloc stands united and we will contest the elections together. Hemant Soren will be the Jharkhand chief minister again. A consensus has been reached on seat-sharing and RJD’s seats will be announced shortly,” Yadav said, days after divisions appeared in the coalition over Soren’s “unilateral arrangement”.
“All the parties of the INDIA alliance believe in secularism, peace and harmony. We all want Jharkhand to move forward and the people of Jharkhand to prosper. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which ruled Jharkhand for the longest time, ruined the state. The BJP is anti-reservation and anti-Constitution. The people of Jharkhand will give a befitting reply to the BJP,” he added.
According to people aware of the details, the JMM has decided to contest on 41 seats, the Congress 30, the RJD six and the CPI(ML) four.
Yadav’s remarks came as the RJD released a list of six candidates for the polls.
It also came days after cracks appeared in the INDIA bloc as Soren announced an alleged “unilateral arrangement” on Saturday. At a hurriedly held press conference in Ranchi, Soren announced that the JMM and Congress will fight 70 of the 81 assembly seats, while the remaining 11 would be set aside for the remaining coalition partners – the RJD and Left parties.
As talks among the allies continued, the Congress on Monday night released a list of 21 candidates. “We will be contesting on 30 seats. That is confirmed. The second list will be released soon,” state Congress chief Keshav Mahto Kamlesh said on Tuesday.
Likewise, the CPI(ML) announced the names of candidates on three seats on Tuesday. The JMM is yet to release its list of candidates but four of its members have already filed their nominations.
“The allies have started distributing tickets on certain seats, despite no announcement on the seat-sharing deal, with the hope that they will have a ‘friendly-fight’ in areas where they are having disagreements,” one of the persons cited above said, seeking anonymity.
In a statement, RJD said it nominated Suresh Paswan from Deoghar, Sanjay Prasad Yadav from Godda and Subhash Yadav from Koderma. Rashmi Prakash will contest from Chatra, Naresh Prasad Singh from Vishrampur and Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav from Hussainabad, it said.
The CPI(ML) nominated Arup Chatterjee from Nirsa, Raj Kumar Yadav from Dhanwar and Chandradev Mahto from Sindri.
During the 2019 assembly polls, the JMM, Congress, and RJD contested in a pre-poll alliance, distributing 43, 31, and seven seats, respectively. The alliance secured a comfortable majority with 47 seats in the 81-member assembly, with JMM winning 30, Congress 16, and RJD one seat.
