Basking in its impressive electoral success recently, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Saturday evinced interest in fighting the upcoming Bihar Assembly election in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which spearheads the Opposition Mahagathbandhan, consisting of RJD, Congress, RLSP (of former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha) and VIP (of Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni).

JMM executive president and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren discussed the prospects of contesting the Bihar poll together with RJD president Lalu Prasad, who is admitted at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi.

Mr. Yadav, who is serving a jail term after being convicted in the fodder scam cases, was shifted to the RIMS Director’s bungalow in August in the wake of a spurt in COVID-19 cases in Jharkhand.

Mr. Soren spent more than an hour with the RJD chief and deliberated on the upcoming poll in the neighbouring State.

Asked about the focus of the discussions with Mr. Yadav, the Jharkhand CM said, “I paid a courtesy call. For quite some time I had not been to RIMS to inquire about the health of Laluji. The process of fighting the Bihar election together has been initiated. The declaration of an electoral alliance will be made by authorised people at an appropriate platform.”

He added that the former Bihar Chief Minister’s health is better now.

Border districts

While the Jharkhand-based regional party is interested in contesting more than 10 seats, the RJD has so far maintained a studied silence on the matter.

“Given a chance, we will do better in the Jharkhand-bordering districts of Bihar such as Katihar, Banka, Jamui, Rohtas, Nawada and Gaya. We had fought the Jharkhand Assembly election in alliance with the RJD last year. Even though the RJD had won only one seat, its MLA is a Minister in the government. It is natural that we should fight the Bihar election together,” said JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya.

In Bihar, JMM has so far been able to win only one seat in several attempts, including the 2015 Assembly election.

The sole victory was registered from Chakai Assembly seat in 2005.

In the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly poll, the JMM and Congress had won 30 and 16 seats respectively while the RJD won one.