Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren said that his party would go it alone in the upcoming elections if the party did not get a respectable seat share in Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance).

Soren, while talking to the media in Dhanbad on Saturday evening, said, “JMM wants to contest both Lok Sabha and assembly elections under the alliance. But if a problem appears in the distribution of seats, my party would not compromise on this issue (seat share) and contest both the elections on its own strength.”

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, JMM had won two seats — Dumka (Shibu Soren) and Rajmaha (Vijay Kumar Hansda) — out of 14, while it was in second position in the Giridih seat. The Congress did not open an account in the election, but it was in second position in five seats: Lohardaga, Ranchi, Chatra, Godda, and Dhanbad. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 12 seats.

“Of course, my party is in favour of the grand alliance of opposition parties, but it is also gearing up to defeat the BJP alone,” he said. JMM Central Committee member Duryodhan Chaudhary was with senior Soren on the occasion.

Soren, who is also the Dumka MP, said that the Raghubar Das government was not sensitive to the education needs of children in the state. “Due to the indefinite strike of para-teachers, the education of rural children has been affected, but the state government is sleeping,” he said.

The para-teachers, he added, had been staging dharnas in front of MLAs’ houses through chilly winter nights. Half a dozen para-teachers died during the agitation. “The BJP will have to pay the price for it in the elections,” said Soren.

First Published: Jan 07, 2019 12:16 IST