Rahul nod for Jharkhand mahagathbandhan, Babulal seeks 3 Lok Sabha seats

Ranchi: Congress on Thursday said the framework of the proposed mahagathbandhan, a grand alliance of opposition parties in Jharkhand aimed to rout BJP in the Parliamentary and state assembly elections this year, is ready after party president Rahul Gandhi’s approval.
While any of the parties — Congress, JMM, JVM-P and RJD — refused to divulge the details of the seat-sharing formula, Congress sources said the party will contest seven of 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while JMM will field candidates in four.The Babulal Marandi-led JVM-P will contest in two seats and Lalu Prasad’s RJD will get one. JMM will get a bigger share of the pie in the assembly polls and field the highest number of candidates for the 81-member assembly, the sources added.
Congress’s announcement came on Thursday afternoon soon after JMM working president Hemant Soren met Rahul at his residence and “closed the minor differences” in a 35-minute meeting. State Congress chief Ajoy Kumar and Congress’ national party in-charge for Jharkhand RPN Singh also attended the meeting.
“The framework for mahagathbandhan — consisting Congress, JMM, JVM-P and RJD — has been prepared after Rahul Gandhi’s approval. It was decided that Congress will contest on most seats in the Lok Sabha elections, while JMM will contest in most number of seats in assembly polls,” the statement read.
Speaking to TOI over phone from New Delhi, Kumar said: “It is clear that the mahagathbandhan will fight under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi in the parliamentary polls while the state elections will be fought under Hemant.” Soon after, JMM’s official Twitter handle also broke the news.
In the 2014 parliamentary polls, BJP won 12 of the 14 seats while JMM bagged the other two.
Congress staked claim over seven seats based on their orgasinational base and its performance five years ago, when it finished second to BJP in most of the seats. JMM, on the other hand, will get to retain its current seats, Dumka and Rajmahal in the tribal heartland of Santhal Pargana. JMM chief Shibu Soren is a sitting MP from Dumka and is expected to run for another term.
Marandi, a former CM, is likely to contest from Giridih, while Kumar, who once won from the Jamshedpur LS seat in mid-term poll on a JVM-P ticket, is likely to chose between Jamshedpur and Dhanbad.
On Wednesday, Soren, JVM-P general secretaries Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey met Kumar and Singh at at Madhya Pradesh Bhavan in Chanakyapuri to discuss the finer points of seat-sharing. However, no one from JVM-P was present for the meeting with Gandhi on Thursday.
The joint announcement also did not seem to go down well with JVM-P. Speaking to reporters in Ranchi, party chief Babulal Marandi said: “Pyench abhi baki hai (There are still a few twists to it).”