JMM, Cong lock horns over RS seats

Ranchi: At a time when the mahagathbandhan government in the state was expected to put up a united face against the ongoing political onslaught of BJP, two key alliance partners — JMM and Congress — seemed to wash their dirty linens in public over the Rajya Sabha election.
The chasm between JMM and Congress came to the fore on Friday after both the parties expressed their intentions to field candidates for the two vacant seats in the Upper House. While JMM is in a comfortable position with 32 members in the 81-member House, Congress with 17 members needs JMM to support its candidate. More so after the strength of the House has been reduced to 80 after the disqualification of Bandhu Tirkey (Congress).
Any candidate obtaining 28 first preference votes in the election will win the Rajya Sabha seat and this time, the NDA with 26 BJP MLAs and two members of its estranged ally, Ajsu-P, is likely to secure the second seat.
JMM central general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya accused Congress of neglecting “Guruji” during the previous Rajya Sabha election. He said, “They (Congress) had fielded a candidate when Guruji was contesting last time. So, how can they expect our support now,” he said, stressing that JMM is not going to compromise. “If Congress wants, it can contest on the second seat,” he said.
Reacting to Bhattacharya’s comments, Congress spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said his party had not betrayed the coalition dharma last time and did not field a candidate. “During the last Rajya Sabha election, it was decided mutually in a meeting attended by the Congress in-charge and Hemant Soren to field a candidate,” he said, clarifying that Guruji was accepted as the “leader of the state”. Congress had fielded Shahzada Anwar on the second seat.