Ranchi: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, which is currently governing Jharkhand in an alliance with the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, has announced to contest the West Bengal assembly polls, likely to be held in April-May next year.
“The central committee of our party has decided to contest the upcoming West Bengal election with all our might. The finer modalities are being worked out,” JMM general secretary-cum-spokesperson Vinod Kumar Pandey said.
The party wanted to expand its base in West Bengal as a part of the outfit’s vision of ‘vrihat Jharkhand (greater Jharkhand)’, senior functionaries in Ranchi said.
In 2016, JMM had fielded candidates across 23 assembly constituencies in West Bengal, which were spread across Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Birbhum, Darjeeling and Alipurduar districts. While Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram and Birbhum share their borders with Jharkhand, West Bengal’s northern districts of Darjeeling and Alipurduar have a sizeable tribal population which originally settled as workers in tea estates. The 2016 sojourn was a dismal affair for the JMM as it failed to open its account.
Speaking to reporters in Dumka recently, Soren had said a team of senior JMM functionaries was dispatched to West Bengal to study the ground conditions before zeroing in on the party’s prospective seats and candidates.
As BJP tries to make inroads into West Bengal, it remains unclear whether JMM will forge a pre-poll alliance with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which is eyeing a third consecutive term in office. In 2019, Banerjee had accepted Soren’s invitation and attended his swearing-in ceremony at Ranchi’s Morhabadi ground. In early 2019, Soren addressed a mega rally of opposition parties convened by Banerjee in Kolkata’s Brigade Parade grounds ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
“There has not been any discussion about alliances at present,” JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya told TOI. However, Bhattacharya hinted that JMM will hold talks with like-minded parties.
In October, JMM had walked out of the RJD-led mahagathbandhan in poll-bound Bihar and contested independently in seven seats after differences cropped up over seat sharing. However, it did not win any.