J'khand Grand Alliance: Cong to contest 7 seats, JMM gets 4

Ranchi: Sunday, ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance) in Jharkhand announced the seat-sharing arrangement among the Congress, the JMM, the JVM (Prajatantrik) and the RJD for 14 Lok Sabha seats.“The Congress will contest in seven seats, while the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) will contest four and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) two.

The Mahagathbandhan has left the Palamau seat to the RJD,” Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajoy Kumar said.

However, RJD Jharkhand unit general secretary Sanjay Singh Yadav said the party did not accept the seat-sharing formula, which was decided in its absence.“Our stand is clear. We will contest from Palamau and Chatra. If not given that, we will decide to field candidates in other seats,” Yadav said.He added that the Congress, the JMM and the JVM announced the arrangement ‘unilaterally without RJD’s consent’.As per the seat-sharing deal, the Congress will contest from Ranchi, Khunti (ST), Lohardaga (ST), Singhbhum (ST), Hazaribagh, Dhanbad and Chatra seats, while the JMM will field candidates from Dumka (ST), Rajmahal (ST), Giridih and Jamshedpur and JVM will contest from Godda and Koderma seats.Kumar said that the Grand Alliance believes that the RJD would accept the seat-sharing formula ‘to unseat the BJP government’.The four-phase Lok Sabha polling will begin on April 29 in the state.