M A I N   N E W S

Cong-JMM pact leaves RJD sore
Anita Katyal
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7
The Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) today joined forces and announced their electoral pact for next month’s assembly poll in Jharkhand leaving the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the cold.

Annoyed over the seat sharing agreement between the Congress and the JMM, Union Minister and RJD chief Laloo Prasad tonight declared that his party would contest all seats except 25 where the two parties have their sitting MLAs.

“We believe all secular partners in the UPA should believe in give and take. But they decided their seat sharing agreement and left us (RJD and Left parties). I am not a person to do injustice. We have decided to contest 56 seats, leaving 25 for the Congress and the JMM where they have sitting MLAs,” Laloo told reporters at the Airport soon after his arrival in the capital.

Only 13 seats in the 81- member Assembly have been left for the RJD and the Left parties. The RJD alone had staked claim on 30 seats on the plea that it was the single largest party in the state.

Today’s move is bound to impact the seat-sharing talks in Bihar where the RJD, as a senior partner, is calling the shots and is unwilling to concede more than 25-odd seats to the Congress.

The RJD and the Left parties were angry that their rightful claims in Jharkhand had been wilfully ignored by the Congress and JMM, who garnered the major chunk of seats.

“We are definitely hurt... we were not consulted or informed about the seat sharing arrangement in Jharkhand. After all, we are in a coalition ...it would have been more graceful if they had involved us,” remarked Company Affairs Minister Prem Gupta, also a close confidant of RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav.

Mr Gupta said their discussions with the Congress so far had been confined primarily to Bihar while Jharkhand had not figured in their deliberations.

According to him, the RJD had a large presence in Jharkhand as it had polled 11 per cent votes in the last elections, although it contested only 31 seats while the Congress got a 11 per cent vote share after contesting all the seats.

“They have done their job...now we will do ours,” he added, indicating that the RJD could field candidates against their allies.

Congress leaders officially maintain that the RJD was consulted on Jharkhand. Privately, however, they admit that today’s move was in response to RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav’s tough posturing on seat-sharing in Bihar.

“If Laloo thinks he can get away by humiliating us in Bihar where he is strong, then we can also pay him back in the same coin in a state where we are better placed,” remarked a senior AICC leader, admitting that their decision would impact their talks on Bihar which had, so far, proved to be an exercise in futility.

The RJD maintained that the Congress had made exaggerated claims in Bihar on the plea that the party's graph was on the rise after it formed the government at the Centre. The RJD had countered this argument by pointing to the Lok Sabha election results in Bihar where it swept the state.

In fact, Mr Yadav has deliberately stayed away from the talks so far and instead entrusted the task to his colleague, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. Mr Yadav is, however, slated to meet senior Congress leaders Arjun Singh and M.L. Fotedar, who are negotiating on behalf of their party.

As far as Jharkhand was concerned, Mr Arjun Singh said there would be no going back on the electoral pact announced today. At the same time, he said, he was open to discussions with the RJD.