The JMM will fight the Bihar elections on its own and not in alliance with the RJD, its partner in the Jharkhand government, but clarified that it will continue to honour its commitment towards the grand alliance that unseated the BJP in Jharkhand.
JMM’s general secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharjee said, “We have decided to fight alone in Bihar, on our own strength. Initially, we have finalised seven seats but since the polls are in three phases, we will announce more seats after internal discussion within the party forum.”
Party sources told Telegraph Online that chief minister Hemant Soren, who is also JMM working president, held talks with RJD working president Tejashwi Yadav on Monday night, but the talks failed. No one, however, confirmed it officially.
But an irked JMM posed a question to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad for his silence over his party’s double standards. “We accommodated RJD in the grand alliance in Jharkhand both during last year’s general and Assembly polls despite negligible presence of the party in this state. They only managed to win one seat in the Assembly polls in Jharkhand last year. Still we inducted their lone MLA into the cabinet. We gave them full respect but now it seems they didn’t deserve that respect. Why is Laluji, who often talks about social justice and political inclusiveness silent now?” said Bhattacharjee.
The JMM spokesperson, however, clarified that the party won’t go back on its commitment in Jharkhand. “The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance in Jharkhand will stay intact as of now,” he said.
In August, the JMM announced that it would fight Bihar polls as a part of the mahagatbandhan under the leadership of the RJD. Following several rounds of meetings, JMM put forth a list of 12 seats for itself. Later, JMM demanded six more seats.
But the JMM maintained that it was open to negotiations with the RJD and was even ready to downsize their demand of 18 seats in the interest of the grand alliance. But Bhattacharjee said they did not hear from the RJD leadership.
“We waited to hear from the RJD about a respectable number of seats. But now the scope for negotiations is over. The JMM will not compromise with the party’s self-respect for the sake of fighting polls. For us, mutual respect is more important. But perhaps, RJD doesn’t want to treat us with respect,” Bhattacharjee said.
He said the JMM would emerge as a force to reckon with during government formation Bihar and went on to name seven seats in Bihar where it would put up candidates. “These are seats where we are sure of winning, namely, Jhaja, Chakai, Katuria, Dhamdaha, Manihari, Pirpainti, and Nathnagar.”
Bhattacharjee said they would decide on some more seats later.
The last time JMM fought alone in Bihar was in 2005 when it won only a single seat (Chakai).
Bhattacharjee, however, insisted that the JMM would not go back on its commitment in Jharkhand and reminded RJD about the JMM’s contribution during the time of undivided Bihar.
“When Laluji became CM for the first time, it was with our support. Later, he went on to become CM thrice. We had even supported JDU’s Nitish Kumar when he first became CM for only nine days. In the 2015 Assembly polls in Bihar, the JMM had extended support to the JDU-RJD alliance,” he said.
Bhattacharjee said JMM was always a key player in government formation. “In the first polls in 1952, we were the largest in the Opposition with 32 MLAs. Since then, we maintained our stronghold in south Bihar regions (most of which is in Jharkhand now) and remained a deciding factor in the formation of governments,” he said.
