Jharkhand coalition govt on brink of collapse? Congress miffed as JMM fields RS candidate

The rift in Jharkhand's ruling coalition escalated after JMM refused to allocate one seat to its ally Congress for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls. With the impending retirement of BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar, two RS seats are up for grabs in Jharkhand. Based on their current strength in the state Assembly, BJP and the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance are likely to bag one seat each. After Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren announced JMM leader Mahua Maji as its candidate for the RS election, Congress asserted that this move was contrary to what was discussed between the former and party chief Sonia Gandhi.

However, JMM general secretary Supriya Bhattacharya was quoted as saying by ANI, “We never said that we are giving the seat to them (Congress). We are 30 in number (in assembly), so naturally, it is our claim. For the last month, I have been saying that the JMM will field its candidate. Scenarios always change in politics. We are with the alliance. So far Guruji (Shibu Soren) is concerned, he didn’t go to RS unopposed. Congress fielded its own candidate last time. It had to be unopposed." 

As per sources, Congress' Jharkhand in-charge Avinash Pande called on Sonia Gandhi on Monday evening, hours after Soren's announcement. Speculation is rife that he held a discussion on whether Congress should continue the tie-up in Jharkhand as JMM violated the 'alliance dharma'. Meanwhile, BJP has given the RS nomination to its Jharkhand unit's general secretary Aditya Sahu. 

Political scenario in Jharkhand

The 2019 Jharkhand Assembly election was conducted in 5 phases. While the polls commenced on November 30, the other phases of voting took place on December 7, 12, 16, and 20. The approximate voter turnout for all 81 assembly constituencies of Jharkhand was 65.17%. The BJP-AJSU alliance was seeking re-election after winning 42 out of 81 seats in the 2014 Jharkhand Assembly elections. However, the opposition alliance comprising Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, and Rashtriya Janata Dal secured 47 seats, which is more than the halfway mark in the Jharkhand Assembly with a combined vote share of 35.35%.

On the other hand, the incumbent BJP won from only 25 constituencies with a vote share of 33.37%. In the eventuality that BJP and AJSU contested the elections together, the JMM-led alliance would have lost 13 seats. In such a scenario, the BJP-led alliance could have secured 40 seats in contrast to the Congress-JMM-RJD tie-up's tally of 34 seats. This could have paved the way for the former to form the government with the support of MLAs from smaller parties.