After the recent announcement of Assembly polls in Jharkhand the BJP released the preliminary list of its 66 candidates after the seat sharing between BJP and its allies was almost finalised. On the other hand, the differences within the INDI Alliance have come out in the open after the Alliance had finalised the seat sharing for the elections in the state. After the seat-sharing agreement was reached, a conflict was visible between the Alliance’s constituents on Sunday.
RJD wants more
RJD which is one of the alliance partners expressed displeasure over the seat sharing while calling it a unilateral decision. Not just the RJD, a conflict is also said to be developing between JMM and Congress, because it is claimed that seats were given to RJD from JMM’s quota, due to which Chief Minister Hemant Soren is said to be angry. Hemant Soren had announced on Saturday that his party and Congress will contest 70 out of 81 seats in the state and the alliance will be given space on the remaining seats.
After this Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) expressed displeasure and objected to the one-sided coordination between Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress. RJD is staking a claim on more seats. However, it is worth mentioning here that in the Bihar assembly elections, RJD had completely rejected JMM’s claim to more seats as JMM had wanted to contest elections on more seats, but RJD did not take it seriously. Today, a similar situation is with RJD in Jharkhand. Now Soren’s JMM has coordinated with Congress by sidelining RJD in the state and its effect will be seen in the future.
Timely damage control must
All seems not well in the INDI Alliance at the moment and if timely damage control is not done then it will send a wrong message to the public and a situation like Haryana could arise in Jharkhand too. It is clearly visible that seat sharing is an issue here as the NCP Sharad faction has also fielded candidates for 6 seats while the RJD is not ready to accept anything less than 12 seats.
However, after the JMM and Congress divided 70 out of 81 seats in Jharkhand among themselves, RJD is now expected to get only seven seats out of the remaining 11 seats. That is why the RJD is not happy. Talks are also going on to give the remaining four seats to CPI-ML(L). Moreover, staying in the Alliance is both a compulsion and a necessity for RJD, Left parties or Congress in Jharkhand as Soren has made it clear that whoever has a chance of winning should get the seat. The Alliance cannot look scattered in the state at a time when BJP is already eyeing the Tribal belt and has already placed its bets on former JMM leaders like Champai Soren.
What do the stats say
At present, the RJD seems to be a roadblock in the Alliance unity as its leaders claim that the party has a stronghold in 18-20 constituencies. Additionally, on one hand, the party leaders are claiming that the party stood second in many seats in the last assembly polls and thus should be given more share while on the other they are also saying that they will not spoil the prospects of the Alliance and not let vested interests come in between the partners. “Our only aim is to defeat the BJP, we will not harm the India Block,” Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said. He said even if the party decides to go alone in the election, it will support the opposition alliance’s candidates in 60-62 constituencies.
If we look at the past elections then JMM has a better strike rate of retaining seats as compared to the other Alliance partners. In 2014, JMM won 19 seats, Congress 6, RJD 0. In 2009, JMM won 18, Congress 14, RJD 5. Whereas in the year 2005, JMM was at 17, Congress 9, RJD 7 seats. Thus if the Opposition Alliance wants to win the Jharkhand polls it needs to stay united and focus on winnability rather than squabble over who gets how many seats. A look at past data shows that RJD is talking without any basis and trying to create an issue over seat sharing. By talking about getting second place in the past it has failed to consider the prospects of several JMM candidates who have won seats in the past polls.
Like in Lok Sabha polls, the Opposition looks scattered in Jharkhand too and a dispute over seat sharing can spell doom here. The Opposition parties like JMM and RJD are aware that the Congress which lost the Haryana polls has nothing much to offer and thus the squabble over seats is visible in Jharkhand. However, the need of the hour for the Opposition Alliance is to stick together and reach an amicable situation if they want to not lose another state to BJP due to their egos and self-interests.
