Congress-JMM announce seat sharing agreement for Jharkhand polls, furious RJD says ‘all options open for us…’

The Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha announced plans to jointly contest the upcoming Assembly polls on Saturday — sparking outrage in the allied RJD camp. Chief Minister Hemant Soren also indicated that seat-sharing talks 'remained underway with INDIA alliance partners (RJD and Left parties) for 11 out of 81 seats in the state.

"INDIA bloc will contest the Jharkhand assembly polls together. It has been decided during the seat-sharing talks with the allies that the Congress and the JMM will field candidates in 70 of 81 seats," Soren said after meeting with the alliance partners.

The CM insisted that the decision was taken after consultations with allies and candidates would be announced soon.

The assertion has since prompted a furious rebuttal from the Rashtriya Janata Dal with senior party leader Manoj Kumar Jha insisting that “all decisions cannot be taken instantly like 2 minutes' noodles”.

“All options open for us…RJD has identified 15 to 18 Jharkhand assembly seats where it can defeat BJP alone. Disappointed over offer of Jharkhand assembly seats…the decision by JMM and Congress is unilateral,” Jha added.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had contested 43 seats as part of the United Progressive alliance in 2019. The Congress contested 31 seats and the Rashtriya Janata Dal seven seats in the 81-member assembly. The UPA attained victory by winning 47 seats against BJP's 25 seats.

Meanwhile the BJP also announced its first list of 66 candidates for Jharkhand elections on Saturday as the ruling JMM-led alliance finalised the contours of its seat-sharing agreement. The BJP list included names of former Jharkhand Chief Ministers Champai Soren and Babulal Marandi.

The saffron party will contest the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections in alliance with All Jharkhand Students Union, Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party. BJP will contest 68 seats, AJSU 10 seats, JD-U two seats and LJP one seat.

Jharkhand assembly polls will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20. The counting of votes is slated to occur on November 23.

(With inputs from agencies)