Congress and JMM appear to be inching closer towards forming an alternative government in Jharkhand which has been under President's Rule imposed after fall of the Arjun Munda government on January 8.
Newly-appointed General Secretary in-charge of the state B K Hariprasad will hold talks in this regard with state leaders of Congress and JMM on Friday in Ranchi. Shibu Soren's party, which is supporting UPA-2 from outside, has been keen on forming an alternative government in the state in alliance with Congress ever since it broke up with the BJP leading to imposition of President's Rule there on January 18.
While a large number of Congress leaders in the state are in favour of forming a government with JMM's support as 18 months are still left for the current state assembly's term to get over, the top brass of the party was initially reluctant for any such move. Congress had supported an independent Madhu Koda-led government in the state and had to face criticism later as Koda got embroiled in serious corruption cases.
Besides, there are cases pending against some JMM leaders even now. Hence, the party leadership was wary of any such tie-up in the state. There, however, appears to have been a re-think over the issue of alliances now. JVM (P), which had forged an alliance with Congress for the 2009 assembly elections, parted ways with it in April last year over the FDI issue.
Congress now appears to be veering around to the view that it has to tie up with some party for the next Lok Sabha elections there. Out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, Congress has one MP Subodh Kant Sahay, while JMM has two members. They had fought the last general elections separately. In 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when both parties had fought in alliance, Congress had won six and JMM four seats respectively bringing 10 seats in the UPA kitty.
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