Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan (save democracy campaign) 2024 undertaken by rights outfits and civil society organisations in Jharkhand who are ideologically against communal hatred spread in the country has suggested INDIA bloc leaders on seat sharing formula based on winning prospects in 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

“Based on feedback from training sessions, padyatras and meetings with locals, we have tried to find out winning prospects of parties in the INDIA alliance in 10 out of a total of 14 Lok Sabha seats and have written a letter to the party heads on Monday. In the remaining four seats, we do not have proper feedback so we have not included them in our list,” said Siraj Dutta, one of the members of the Abhiyan and a human rights activist.

Incidentally, over 40 human rights groups and civil society organisations in Jharkhand ideologically against communal hatred spreading in the country have undertaken a Loktantra Bachao 2024 campaign to oust the BJP both in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Jharkhand.

The delegation of the campaign had in December last year met Jharkhand Congress and JMM senior leaders suggesting a strong alliance and planned struggle from INDIA bloc central leadership to oust the BJP in the 2024 general elections in the backdrop of recent setbacks in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan Assembly polls.

“We have written to the parties state leadership of the JMM, Congress, RJD and the Left urging for a strong grassroots alliance in each of the Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand,” said Siraj.

“The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are very important for the future of the country and democracy. INDIA alliance should ensure that there is only one consensus candidate against the BJP in every seat. But, sadly, coordination has still not been established on seat sharing. It is necessary to select local candidates as per the public demand. Candidates should be those who stand with the tribals and indigenous people in the fight for water, forest, land and existence and struggle on public issues,” said the letter addressed to the INDIA alliance leaders.

“The alliance should now pay full attention to organising public contact programmes based on public issues, which is lacking as of now,” the letter further states.

“Based on people’s demand and electoral history, the campaign has assessed 10 selected Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand and would suggest the Congress pit candidates in Khunti, Singhbhum, Ranchi and Lohardaga seats while JMM should put candidates in Jamshedpur, Giridih, Dumka and Rajmahal constituencies while the RJD and CPI-ML should put candidates for Chhatra and Koderma seat respectively,” the letter states.

“We are yet to conclude Dhanbad, Godda, Hazaribagh and Palamu seats,” said a member.

In 2019, the BJP and its ally AJSU won 12 out of 14 seats while the Congress and the JMM bagged one seat each in the form of Singhbhum and Rajmahal respectively.