Defection jolt hit the BJP-led NDA as two senior leaders defected to the JMM soon after the seat-sharing announcement for the upcoming Assembly polls in Jharkhand.

On Friday afternoon, BJP Jharkhand Assembly poll in-charge and Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and co-incharge Himanta Biswa Sarma announced seat sharing at Ranchi with BJP set to contest 68 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly.

“The BJP will contest the polls in alliance with All Jharkhand Students Union (Ajsu), Janata Dal-United (JDU) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas),” said Chouhan at BJP state headquarters in Ranchi.

Himanta Biswa Sarma said: “We have arrived at consensus that the AJSU will contest 10 seats, the JDU will contest two seats and LJP would contest one seat. The rest of the seats would be contested by BJP.”

“Ajsu will contest Silli, Ramgarh, Gomia, Jugsalai (SC), Ichagarh, Lohardaga (ST), Pakur, Manoharpur (ST), Mandu and Dumri. The JDU would contest Jamshedpur West and Tamar (ST) while the LJP (R) would contest Chatra (SC).”

The Assam chief minister, however, added that NDA partners could make one or two changes after assessing the ground situation following the candidate’s declaration and seat sharing of the ruling alliance of INDIA bloc.

A few hours later, JMM central general secretary and party spokesperson, Supriyo Bhattacharya told reporters that BJP’s three-term MLA from Jamua (SC) constituency, Kedar Hazra, and Ajsu central vice-president and former minister Umakant Rajak joined JMM.

Umakant Rajak said that he had to resign as the party did not give him ticket for Chandankiyari constituency, which is currently represented by BJP’s Amar Kumar Bauri.

According to BJP insiders, Kedar Hazra had got inkling of denial of ticket with the joining of Congress leader Manju Singh to BJP earlier this year and had been in dialogue with JMM for the last few months. Manju Singh had been in second place in the 2019 polls.

JMM leader Supriyo Bhattacharya said: “It is an unholy alliance bent on looting, dividing the society, poisoning the society and creating caste-religion conflict,” said Bhattacharya.

Taking a jibe at AJSU, JDU and LJP, Bhattacharya said: “A party which had set out to form the village government in 2019, has now got stuck at 10 seats to change the government. Now, it is not known whether they will be able to win even one seat out of 10 to change the government or not. A party whose support is crucial for the Centre has been reduced to two seats. A central minister kept pleading for one seat.”

He claimed that the BJP will not be able to reach double digits and said that ruling alliance seat sharing would be announced soon.

Voting will be held in two phases for 81 assembly seats in the state. The first phase of elections will be held on November 13 and the second phase on November 20.