As soon as the INDI Alliance leaders Hemant Soren and Ghulam Ahmed Mir announced their seat-sharing formula for Jharkhand assembly polls, the Rashtriya Janata Dal expressed strong objections to it.
RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha told media persons in Ranchi on Saturday that RJD’s strength is more in Jharkhand, but seats were not given accordingly.
“There are 15 to 18 such seats where RJD has the power to defeat BJP on its own. Our entire leadership is here. A meeting was held this morning and in that meeting, it was found that the strength is of the mass base which is in favour of RJD,” he said.
“Last time we fought on 7 seats because Lalu Yadav had a big heart. Our goal was to remove BJP which is still there. It is sad to say that a one-sided decision was taken. Our presence in different districts is very strong. We will ask our alliance partners to take a decision accordingly," said Jha.
Manoj Jha further said that Tejashwi Yadav and RJD’s General Secretary are in Ranchi. But, despite their presence, they were not involved in the process of forming the alliance, which is sad.
“It is also painful because our strength is probably very high. We have identified 15 to 18 such seats where we are probably capable of defeating BJP even alone. All options are open because it is not right for any political party to move ahead by ignoring the sentiments of its leaders and workers,” he added.
Soon after the RJD raised objections to the seat-sharing announcement, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and JMM working president Hemant Soren met RJD leader Tejasi Yadav on the issue.
After a close-door discussion, the leaders went to attend a programme. The details of the discussion have not been announced by any of the parties yet.
Notably, it was announced today that JMM, Congress candidates of India Alliance will contest on 70 seats of the state and their allies will contest in the remaining assembly seats.
After the announcement, it became clear that the RJD and Left parties would field their candidates on the remaining 11 seats.
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