Tag: state polls

Regional parties eye political pie in State polls.

Source – dailypioneer.com

Despite the NaMo wave in the country and the State, where the BJP repeated its 2014 feat of victory on 12 out of 14 Lok Sabh seats in 2019 General Elections, several regional and smaller political parties are enthusiastically eyeing to make their political ground in Jharkhand. So much so that a number of parties have already announced the number of seats, on which they will field their candidates.

While the Nitish Kumar led Janta Dal United has decided to go alone in State Assembly polls, terming its alliance with the National Democratic Alliance just for Lok Sabha polls, it has also made announcement of tentative candidates for about 14 seats in the State.

 The party that had two legislators in the third Assembly of the State, is eyeing its traditional voters alongwith the Kurmi voters, who play a significant role in Jharkhand politics.

The AAP Jharkhand unit has also got a shot in the arm after former Jharkhand cadre IPS officer and ex State in-charge of Congress Dr Ajoy Kumar joined the party recently. The party is also ready to contest elections on more than 40 seats and organising workers conferences across various Assembly segments.

“Our assessment of applications on 40-42 seats across the State is going on. It’s a process through which we finalise whether to contest elections on a particular seat or not. It mainly depends on the number of active workers in the area and also the background of applicants is checked before a name is finalised.

We have been organising workers conferences in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur and other prominent places of the State to boost the morale of workers,” said Rajesh Kumar, Spokesperson AAP, Jharkhand.Similarly, The Nationalist Congress Party, State unit has announced to contest elections on 30 seats in Jharkhand. Former Minister and State president of NCP Kamlesh Kumar Singh said that they were in constant touch with other opposition parties to get into an alliance.

 If there is an alliance, the NCM will contest on 10 seats. However, if the NCP is not in any alliance it will contest polls on 30 seats, he added.

The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which has won two Assembly seats in Maharashtra and one seat in Bihar in the recent elections, is also gearing up to field its candidates in the coming elections. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who had recently organised a rally in the Capital city has been getting scores of letters and calls for candidature in the polls.

The AIMIM has recently announced that it will contest the State elections on 50 seats if there is no alliance with likeminded parties. The party has claimed that it will win at least 12 seats this time.

Jharkhand opposition holds meet to plan for state polls

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Opposition parties on Wednesday outlined the contours of pre-poll alliance at the residence of JMM working president Hemant Soren.

The leaders stressed on charting out a mutually agreeable formula ahead of the assembly polls.

It was agreed that the parties will give candidates from the seats they had won respectively in 2014 and there was no qualm on it.

The parties also stressed on earmarking the seats in the name of the respective parties wherefrom they finished second in the last assembly election.

Besides, there was confusion over the rights of the JVM (P) to contest the six assembly seats it had owned in 2014 but the party legislators defected to the BJP after winning.

The above two contentions were kept open for further discussions and debate while the allies have been asked to submit their wish list within seven days in writing. The grand alliance of the opposition is cautious after being humiliated by the BJP.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of Congress, JVM (P), RJD, Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) and Forward Bloc.

However, the main Left parties – the CPI, CPI (M) and CPI (ML) Liberation did not attend. The decision was taken on Tuesday.

The Left decided to identify the seats the parties want to contest and to negotiate with the grand alliance parties thereafter. Confirming this, CPI state secretary Bhubaneswar Prasad Mehta said the Left parties will meet on July 16 to finalise their list.

Clarifying further, CPI national secretary Atul Anjan said the Left is open for negotiations. We will support any forces that are keen to defeat the BJP, he said. He said that the most Opposition parties do not have ideas on how the BJP is disintegrating the Opposition engineering defection.

JMM working president Hemant Soren, after the meeting, said that the efforts are on to bring all Opposition parties under one umbrella to show BJP the exit door. He said the parties have been directed to identify the seats they are confident of winning and submit it in writing in one week.

On claims of the parties from the sitting seats they had owned in 2014, Hemant said it is a natural claim. For the rest of the seats, decisions would be taken later regarding who will contest where, he said.

On the vexed issue of seats owned by six JVM (P) legislators, who joined the BJP later, he said, “We are serious on that too and working on mutually agreeable solution before staking claims on those seats.”