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Oppn alliance breaks down in Jharkhand
An opposition alliance for the upcoming polls is slowly coming apart due to bickering over sharing of seats.
An alliance forged by opposition parties in Jharkhand for the coming general election some 10 days ago is slowly coming apart due to bickering over sharing of seats.
Most of the parties now believe they can win more seats by going it alone in the Lok Sabha poll.
Overruling the understanding reached in a meeting between Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, both parties have now fielded candidates for seats that were to be shared by the alliance, which included the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC).
A blame game has now started among the opposition parties over the fielding of candidates.
On Monday former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav's RJD decided to field legislator Anpurna Devi in the Koderma Lok Sabha constituency, where the Congress and JMM are going in for a friendly fight.
Earlier, the Congress defied its understanding with the JMM and fielded legislator Chandrashekhar Dubey for the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat.
According to the understanding, the Dhanbad seat was to be left for the MCC.
The Congress has also fielded Vijay Ram for the Palamau Lok Sabha seat, which was conceded to the RJD.
"We decided to field Anpurna Devi after getting the green signal from Laloo Prasad Yadav. The Congress party failed to stick to its stand and we had no option but to field our candidate," said Girinath Singh, the RJD legislature party leader in Jharkhand.
The RJD's decision to field its candidate for Koderma also invited sharp criticism from the JMM.
"The RJD has deceived us. RJD chief Laloo Yadav had assured us he would support the candidate of our party," said Stephen Marandi, Leader of Opposition and senior JMM leader.
The JMM has fielded Champa Verma, the widow of late Ritlal Verma, who was returned to the Lok Sabha four times from Koderma.
The opposition parties had cemented their alliance to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had swept the last three Lok Sabha elections in the region that comprises Jharkhand, a state carved out of Bihar in November 2000.
According to the understanding, the JMM was given five of the 14 Lok Sabha seats from Jharkhand, the RJD two and the MCC and the Communist Party of India one each. The rest of the seats were left for the Congress.
In the last three elections, the BJP had won 12, 12 and 11 seats respectively.
The united opposition had become a cause of worry for the BJP. But with the election approaching, the opposition alliance seems to be falling apart, and this is likely to help the BJP.
Surveys had indicated the united opposition would have given a tough fight to the BJP.
In the present scenario, there will be multi-cornered fights for five seats.
In all the five constituencies, the BJP's position was believed to be weak. They are Palamau, Chatra, Koderma, Rajmahal and Dhanbad. BJP candidates are facing a tough time there as voters are unhappy with them and even BJP workers are said to be displeased with them.
