Chief minister Hemant Soren on Saturday met Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi as talks of early Assembly polls in Jharkhand are doing the rounds.

The Hemant-led JMM-Congress-RJD coalition ousted the BJP in the 2019 Assembly elections with a comfortable majority, but this time there are discussions of an alliance that would also include the Left parties in the state.

“It was primarily a courtesy visit to Sonia ji after his (Hemant) release on bail from judicial custody. However, discussions were also held on cementing a pre-poll umbrella coalition of like-minded parties, which did happen to a certain extent in the form of INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha polls, during the Assembly elections too,” said a close aide of Hemant.

“There were no talks of seat-sharing as it would be too early, however, Hemant ji informed Sonia Gandhi about the need for taking along the Left parties in the coalition for the 2024 Assembly polls to increase our voting percentage in the elections,” the aide added.

In the 2019 Assembly elections, the JMM fielded candidates in 43 seats, the Congress in 31 and the RJD in seven based on the seat-sharing agreements in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly. There was, however, no such understanding with the Left.

The JMM managed to win 32 seats, the Congress 18 and the RJD one seat. “The JMM has emerged stronger compared to 2019 after the results in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the CPI and CPM have a significant number of voters in certain seats like Nirsa and Sindri. Though it could not win any seats in 2019, CPIML MLA Vinod Singh has supported the ruling coalition several times,” the aide said.

Hemant also met Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal.