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Jharkhand elections: RJD takes ‘2 minutes noodles’ jibe at INDIA allies over seat sharing announcement
Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren announced that his party JMM and the Congress will contest 70 out of 81 seats in the state
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has expressed displeasure over the seat sharing arrangements with its INDIA bloc allies Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) for the assembly elections in Jharkhand.
Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren announced that his party JMM and the Congress will contest 70 out of 81 seats in the state.
“We have come before you for a special reason. You can see that our entire leadership is here at the request of our leader of opposition Tejashwi ji. We had a meeting this morning and it was decided in that meeting that the strength of votes and mass base is in favour of RJD,” party MP Manoj Jha was quoted by ANI as saying.
“For example, let me tell you that last time we fought on 7 seats because Lalu ji had a big heart, his goal was to oust the BJP, and the goal is the same even today, we were runner-up on 5 seats. The rest of our alliance partners may not have been runners-up in percentage terms on that many seats...A unilateral decision was taken,” the RJD leader claimed.
“Our presence in different districts is very strong, we will urge our alliance partners to take a decision accordingly. Our in-charge is here, our state president is here and since yesterday our leader of opposition Tejashwi ji himself is here...Despite everyone being there, if you did not involve us in the process of allying, then it is painfully...In the meeting that we had today, we have identified 15 to 18 such seats in different districts where we are probably capable of defeating the BJP even alone,” he added.
“All options open for us. All decisions cannot be taken instantly like '2 minutes' noodles,” PTI quoted Jha as saying.
When asked about RJD's displeasure over seat sharing, Congress leader Pawan Khera told ANI, “There is no resentment or displeasure from anyone.”
BJP taunts Congress
BJP leader Laxmikant Bajpai asked the Congress to “self-introspect”. “Those who point fingers at others need to self-introspect. Congress is saying that the CM should be from their party. So, they will decide who gets what in the alliance. BJP has made their decision in this regard, everything has been done peacefully,” he told ANI.
Jharkhand assembly election schedule
According to the Election Commission, elections to the 81-member Jharkhand assembly will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20. The counting of votes will take place on November 23.
The NDA on Friday announced its seat-sharing formula among its partners. The BJP will contest 68 seats, AJSU will contest on 10 seats, while the JD(U) will contest on two seats and LJP (Ram Vilas) on one seat.
