Jharkhand opposition seals Lok Sabha seat deal

Seat share: Buzz on 7-4-2-1 formula after Hemant Soren meets Rahul in Delhi.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) working president Hemant Soren met Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Thursday and finalised the opposition’s proposed Grand Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha poll and Jharkhand assembly elections.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi with JMM’s Hemant Soren and Congress leaders Ajoy Kumar (extreme left) and RPN Singh (extreme right), in Delhi on Thursday. (HT)

The meeting at Rahul Gandhi’s residence was attended by RPN Singh, general secretary in-charge of Jharkhand; and state Congress president Ajoy Kumar. A senior JMM leader said that given the acrimony and split between the JMM and the Congress after the last assembly polls, Thursday’s meeting also assuaged apprehensions about whether the JMM would be the senior partner to the Congress in this year’s state elections.

Soren has been in New Delhi since Tuesday, holding meetings with other senior Congress leaders and those of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and Rashtriya Janata Dal, the other two constituents of the Grand Alliance envisaged in Jharkhand, in which the JMM is the largest local player. All four partners of the proposed alliance had come together in a meeting on Wednesday.