On Tuesday, the Election Commission of India announced the Jharkhand assembly poll schedule. The assembly polls in Jharkhand are all set to begin in two phases- Nov 13 and Nov 20. The upcoming Jharkhand assembly polls will be a direct contest between the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led INDIA bloc and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
In 2019, there was a pre-poll alliance formed between JMM, Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. The alliance won 47 seats in the 81 member Jharkhand assembly by taking over the BJP-led NDA government headed by Raghubar Das. Then BJP had parted ways with ally All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) but later the two came together and fought the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where they won nine seats in the state, with BJP winning eight of them.
In the Lok Sabha, the India alliance secured five seats of the 14 seats in the state. Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) are showing interest to join hands with NDA and fight together in the state.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP’s co-in-charge for the polls in Jharkhand said to reporters, “Discussion has been done with AJSU and everything has been finalized. They will likely get around 10 seats. There is some confusion with one seat which will be sorted soon.” He also adds, “Final talks have been done with JD(U). They will get two seats unless the central decides to provide any extra seat. We spoke to Chirag Paswan as well who is currently abroad. After he comes we will be having a concluding statement regarding this.”
In reply to Sarma’s statement AJSU chief spokesperson Devsharan Bhagat said, “The statement of Himanta Sarma itself shows that few things are yet to be finalized. However, I would propose the idea to contest the election together. Talks are being done in a very friendly way.”
“I can’t comment on what Himanta Sarma ji has said. But we have demanded for over 11 seats. Our state president Khiru Mahto has been in Patna for the past three days. Our state in-charge and our working national president are having discussions with the BJP’s central leadership and we would settle for a respectable number,” said Shrawan Kumar, general secretary and spokesperson, Jharkhand JD(U).
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