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JMM nominates Mahua Maji; Congress left out
The elections to 57 seats in the Rajya Sabha, spread across 15 states and Union territories, will be held on June 10. Two of these seats are from Jharkhand.
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The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Monday announced its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, turning down a request from ally Congress to allocate it a seat from the state in the Upper House of Parliament.
The Jharkhand’s ruling party named Mahua Maji as its candidate and the announcement came two days after chief minister Hemant Soren met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi. The Congress, which is the junior partner in the Soren-led state government with 17 legislators, had earlier requested the JMM to allocate a seat to it.
Addressing reporters at his residence, Soren said the decision on Maji’s name was taken by his father and JMM president Shibu Soren. “After the meeting of JMM, I met Sonia ji. I returned with her message and informed Guruji (Shibu Soren). We discussed names and finally Guruji decided upon the name of Mahua Maji to be our Rajya Sabha nominee,” he said.
The elections to 57 seats in the Rajya Sabha, spread across 15 states and Union territories, will be held on June 10. Two of these seats are from Jharkhand.
Maji is set to sail through as the JMM has 30 members in the legislative assembly, three more than 27 first preference votes required to win the seat. The second seat is set to go to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has fielded its state general secretary Aditya Sahu.
Maji, a PhD scholar and author, is the former president of the party’s mahila morcha. Maji has twice contested unsuccessfully on JMM ticket from Ranchi assembly seat, a pocket borough of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The JMM’s decision, however, did not go down well with the ally Congress. Reacting to the announcement, Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur said statements of CM Soren in New Delhi and Ranchi are not similar.
“This is the decision of the JMM. I can’t comment on that… We have informed our party in-charge who is likely to meet the high command and come to Ranchi on Tuesday. All I can say is that what the CM said in New Delhi and Ranchi is contrary to each other,” said Thakur.
On whether the decision would impact the future of the alliance and the state government, Thakur said any decision will be taken after a meeting of the party.
“Whether we have to support the JMM candidate or not will be decided tomorrow (Tuesday) when our in-charge will come here after deliberations with party leaders... Any decision related to the alliance’s future will be taken after our leaders meet and as per the direction of the high command,” he added.
