Congress to seal deal with JMM, be junior partner in Jharkhand

NEW DELHI: In the wake of the opposition performing better than expected in Haryana and Maharashtra elections, Congress has decided to seal an election alliance with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) for Jharkhand assembly elections, putting to rest the indications of breakup after the Lok Sabha rout.
The alliance, sources said, is likely to be clinched without much fuss and would be finalised before the process for assembly polls gains momentum.
Sources said the initial talks between Congress and JMM have removed the post-LS confusion and resulted in an in-principle decision on election partnership.
The discussions on seatsharing would start soon. Congress would be the junior partner to JMM and may settle for 25-30 seats in the house of 81. Uncertainty looms over JVM of Babulal Marandi joining the fold though talks are on with the party.
In the LS polls, BJP swept the state across regions, decimating the “grand alliance” of JMM-Congress-JVM.
While BJP is seen as positioned way ahead of its rivals for the assembly contest, the opposition is taking hope from the performance of Congress in Haryana where it ran the ruling party close. Even in Maharashtra, where NCP and Congress were seriously hobbled by lack of personnel following months of defections to BJP, the opposition was not decimated as was expected by the ruling camp.
The lessons drawn by opposition strategists from the recent assembly polls are that electorate may be differentiating between national and assembly polls, and that BJP can be challenged in states despite its parliamentary landslide.
It is the only source of optimism for opposition whose expectations in Jharkhand were dashed by the Modi juggernaut few months ago.
Moreover, like Haryana and Maharashtra, BJP in Ranchi has an unconventional chief minister in Raghubar Das, a non-tribal in what is viewed as a tribal state.
The JMM-Congress alliance seeks to mobilise the tribals under the Sorens while hoping to eat away at the OBC and upper caste votes through the national party. The two allies are likely to revert focus to “tenancy law amendments” that the Das government had to roll back under sustained pressure from the tribal agitation.