INDI Alliance Fails To Reach Consensus Over Seat-Sharing In Jharkhand As RJD Adamant On Contesting Two Seats

INDI Alliance is yet to decide its seat-sharing arrangement in Jharkhand as the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is adamant to fight two seats of Chatra and Palamu.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (CPI) has already announced its candidates for four Lok Sabha seats in the state. Two of these seats are of Palamu and Chatra, which RJD wants to contest.

This means that CPI is now officially out of the INDI Alliance in Jharkhand. It has also fielded candidates in Dumka, where the BJP candidate is Sita Soren, and Lohardaga, where Congress is contesting.

However, in neighbouring Bihar, the INDI Alliance's seat-sharing was finalised with the Left parties getting five seats to contest. The RJD will contest 26 and Congress nine seats in Bihar.

There are 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand. Earlier, it was believed that Congress would contest seven, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) five and one seat each will be allocated to RJD and CPI (ML).

In 2019 too, Congress contested seven seats and won one seat. However, the JMM is believed to have rejected this proposal as it has almost double MLAs than Congress in the state.

Till now, the Congress has announced three candidates in the state. Sukhdeo Bhagat will contest from Lohardaga, Kalicharan Munda from Khunti and Jai Prakash Bhai Patel from Hazaribagh.

RJD is also expected to announce its candidates for two seats. In 2019, it contested only one seat of Palamu and lost to the BJP. RJD state spokesperson Dr Manoj Kumar reiterated claims on the two seats.

He was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express, "In Bihar, we compromised by giving Congress the seats they wished to contest. How could the Congress conclude that we lack a mass base in Jharkhand?"

The voting in the state will take place in four phases, on 13 May, 20 May, 25 May and 1 June. The counting will be held on 4 June.