BJP, Ajsu-P forge pre-poll alliance, Sudesh-led party gets only 1 seat

Ranchi: Ending months of bickering and bad blood between them, ruling BJP and its NDA partner Asju-P announced a pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha polls with the former ceding only one of the state’s total 14 parliamentary seats to the Sudesh Mahto-led party.
A formal announcement was made in this regard on Friday night from the BJP camp in New Delhi on the sidelines of the ruling party’s parliamentary board meeting. Earlier, the saffron party’s national president Amit Shah met Mahto to hammer out the seat-sharing agreement.

After entering into an agreement with BJP, Mahto, who had always been critical of BJP, told TOI from New Delhi that politics is all about possibilities and both BJP and Ajsu-P are natural allies. He said, “It’s the need of the hour to keep larger things in mind. Our aim is to debut in Parliament and raise real issues concerning Jharkhand at the national level, which we think is missing. Therefore, this alliance in which get the Giridih seat was shaped up after weighing all pros and cons.”

Mahto, however, kept the probable candidate from the Giridih seat close to his chest, though unconfirmed reports said three senior leaders are front-runners for the party ticket. The reports added that the trio having the highest probability are Mahto himself, party MLA and water resource minister Chandra Prakash Choudary and bureaucrat-turned party leader Lambodar Mahto.

The party’s central committee spokesperson, Deosharan Bhagat, said the candidate is likely to be revealed after a formal announcement soon. On the alliance, Bhagat have only self praise and said Ajsu got right deal from NDA. He claimed that though the party was preparing for three seats, they had only announced to take up the fight from Giridih so far.

“In our national convention last month, we had formally announced a fight from Giridih and begun the ground work. We had set sights on Ranchi and Hazaribagh, too, but that were yet to be formalised. Recognising that our claim on the Giridih seat is genuine, NDA (BJP) promptly decided to leave it for us for the sake of a strong pre-poll alliance. It’s a win-win situation for both the parties to counter the opponents,” said Bhagat, claiming that even if Ajsu-P had gone solo, it has a high chance of winning the seat given its strong base in Kurmi strongholds of Tundi, Gomia, Giridih, Dumri areas.