Jharkhand oppn forms anti-BJP grand alliance under Hemant

Anti-BJP parties in Jharkhand have formed a mahagathbandhan to fight the NDA in this year’s parliamentary and assembly polls. A decision was taken at a two-anda-half-hour meeting attended by representatives of JMM, Congress, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVMP), RJD, CPI, CPM, CPI-ML and Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) on Thursday.

To strengthen their alliance, the opposition parties have accepted JMM working president Hemant Soren as their chief ministerial candidate. JMM strongman, who has served as CM once, returned the favour by announcing that the mahagathbandhan would take part in the Lok Sabha election under Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. Earlier, Hemant had dropped hints that JMM might go it alone in the election if CM’s post issue remained unresolved.

The formation of the alliance follows BJP’s repeated failure to do well in the assembly byelections since it came to power in 2014.

Opposition parties have won six of seven such bypolls.