Gathbandhan talks run into Godda hurdle

Ranchi: Jharkhand Congress president Ajoy Kumar met JVM-P chief Babulal Marandi in Giridih behind closed doors for 30 minutes on Wednesday morning amid speculations of a rift between the parties over seat-sharing arrangement for the Lok Sabha elections.
Kumar camped in Giridih on Tuesday night while in transit to Deoghar, where Congress held a political rally on Wednesday, and sought blessings of resident Lord Baidyanath to oust BJP from Jharkhand and the Centre. He met Marandi at the latter’s house at 9:30am.

Though what the duo discussed was kept under wraps, Congress sources said Kumar tried to assuage Marandi from his demand on Godda parliamentary seat and invited him to New Delhi for a discussion next week. Marandi has staked claimed the seat, citing JVM-P’s exploits in leading a protest the land acquisition drive for Adani Group’s proposed thermal power plant in 2017. Congress, the sources said, plans to field party veteran Furkan Ansari from this seat.

The duo came out of the meeting together. Speaking to reporters first, Marandi said that discussions for a mahagathbandhan is still in progress. “I hope that the talks will eventually produce a good result,” he added.

Marandi said overlapping interests were justified. “This is quite natural. All political parties are trying to stake claim to the seats based on the analysis of ground scenario and the wishes of their functionaries. The final call is yet to be taken,” he said. On asked about their meeting in Giridih in place of Ranchi, Marandi said it was due to the tight schedule of both parties.

Speaking next, Kumar said: “Any problems between our allies have always been sorted out through discussions. There is no pressure on any one of us. Babulalji is a very senior politician. There are no diffrences between us.”