Old alliance to continue in Jharkhand

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha announced on Monday that it would contest the Lok Sabha elections together with the alliance partners Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The announcement to this effect came today after the RJD supreme Lalu Prasad Yadav met JMM chief Shibu Soren at AIIMS where the latter is admitted for urinary tract infection. Earlier on Sunday the UPA partners had agreed on the seat-sharing formula here.

“The JMM is a part of the UPA and it will remain in the UPA. The JMM, Congress and RJD will fight together in the Lok sabha election," Hemlal Murmu, a JMM Lok Sabha MP, told IANS after the two top-notch leader’s meeting.

As per the seat-sharing agreement, the Congress will fight from six seats, JMM four seats and RJD two seats of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The remaining two seats- Hazaribagh and Koderma - will be decided later.

Koderma was the lone NDA seat from where former chief minister Babulal Marandi had won the 2004 parliamentary election. Later Marandi resigned from both Koderma LS seat and the primary membership of BJP in 2006 and floated a new political outfit named Jharkhand Vikas Morcha. In the recently held by-election he won the Kodarma seat as an Independent. While Hazaribagh is represented by Communist Party of India MP Bhuneshwar Mehta.

The Congress will now field its candidates in Ranchi, Khuti, Lohardagga, Dhanbad, Godda and Chaibsasa Lok Sabha seats. The JMM will contest in Rajmahal, Dumka, Giridih and Jamshedpur, while RJD will fray from Chatra and Palamau seats.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Congress, JMM and RJD had contested together and won six, four and two seats respectively. CPI was also with the UPA then and had won one seat.