The ruling coalition in Jharkhand is facing allegations of "buying" candidates to facilitate the victory of chief minister Hemant Soren's wife and sitting Gandey MLA Kalpana Soren.

The allegation surfaced on Friday after Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM), which registered earlier this year, accused the JMM of buying its official candidates to facilitate Kalpana's victory.

JLKM spokesperson Sujit Kumar Mandal alleged that the JMM entered into a “huge-amount” deal with its leader to join the JMM at a time when the new party would be left in the lurch.

“Aqeel Akhtar has been with our party and has filed the nomination. He had even expressed support to us a few days back. We were surprised at the sudden change of stand on Thursday when we saw on social media his photograph with Hemant Soren informing his joining the JMM with his supporters.

"Since the nomination filing date ended on Tuesday, we could not field another candidate. We assume he has been lured to the party (JMM) for a huge amount,” said Mandal.

Akhtar, popularly known as Rizwan Krantikari, was the JLKM candidate for the Gandey seat. Akhtar was believed to make a dent in the JMM vote bank in the minority community which could have damaged the party candidate's prospects in a closely fought contest against BJP’s Munia Devi.

The JLKM has been demanding reservation for locals in jobs and education and a khatian-based (land survey) reservation policy in the state. He is popular among moolvasis (original settlers), including minorities, in several constituencies and might dent the prospects of the ruling coalition and NDA candidates in key constituencies.

“We are in such a situation that we do not have a candidate in Gandey. Notwithstanding the setbacks, we are determined to perform better in the remaining seats and hope to see our party president, Jairam Mahato, as the new chief minister,” said Mandal.

The JLKM has fielded 73 candidates in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, more than any other party this time.

JMM spokesperson Manoj Pandey, however, claimed that the JLKM was hiding its organisational failure with such "baseless allegations”.

“They are trying to hide their organisational failure in keeping their leaders intact during elections by making such baseless allegations. It is a fact that candidates are coming on their own to the JMM after aligning with our party’s ideology,” said Pandey.

The Jharkhand Assembly election is scheduled to be held in two phases — November 13 and November 20.