Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren
New Delhi: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a key ally in the INDIA bloc, has not submitted its list of candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections as the nomination process closed on October 20.
This is the first time in recent years the Jharkhand-based regional party, lead by Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, opts out of the polls, thus giving a jolt to the Opposition alliance.
However, JMM spokesperson and general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said on October 18 that the party would contest in six seats: Jamui, Chakai, Dhamdaha, Manihari, Pirpainti and Katoria.
Sudivya Kumar, JMM minister, accused the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of sidelining his party in the seat-sharing talks, terming it ‘political cunningness’.
“I used the term ‘political cunningness’ because when I went to Patna on October 7 as a representative of my party, the talks were cordial. It didn’t seem like the INDIA bloc would try to exclude JMM from the Bihar polls,’ he said.
Further attacking RJD, Sudivya Kumar said that ‘If they wanted to deny us participation, they should have said so clearly’, adding that RJD did not give JMM no clarity from October 7 to 20, making it clear he said ‘RJD indulged in political cunningness; this is not appropriate in politics’.
Supriyo Bhattacharya previously came down on the RJD and Congress for what he said failing to honour alliance commitments.
The campaigning will start from October 21 as the polls are scheduled to take place on November 6 and 11 with results to come out on November 14.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will start campaigning taking out massive rallies in Kanti and Minapur. BJP leaders will start campaigning soon across 121 constituencies.