Jharkhand: JMM, Cong support pre-LS opposition combine for assembly polls

RANCHI: After election schedule was announced in Jharkhand, the JMM and the Congress, on Friday supported continuation of the pre-Lok Sabha opposition alliance in the November-December state polls.
The JMM, Congress, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and Rashtriya Janata Dal had fought the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state in alliance.
The JMM and the Congress had won one seat each in the Parliamentary poll in Jharkhand.
"We will contest in alliance with the opposition parties," JMM general secretary and spokesman Suprio Bhattacharya told PTI.
He replied in affirmative when asked whether the opposition alliance would see the same opposition parties as had been stitched before the Lok Sabha elections this year.
Asked how many seats the JMM would contest in the assembly polls, Bhattacharya said, "We will let you know soon, as the poll schedule announced just now."
The JMM had won 19 seats in the 2014 assembly elections with two of its MLAs, Kunal Sarangi and Jai Prakash Bhai Patel, defecting to the BJP recently.
The Congress also expressed hope that the opposition alliance of the pre-Lok Sabha elections would continue for the five-phase assembly elections beginning on November 30.
"Till date, no opposition party has said they will come out of the alliance stitched before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, we take the opposition alliance intact," Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Lal Kishore Nath Shahdeo told PTI.
"Talks on alliance is going on," he said when asked how many seats the Congress would demand to contest.
Ajoy Kumar, who had held the presidents post of the JPCC and been instrumental in forging the opposition alliance, had since quit and joined the AAP party while the Congress has appointed former IPS officer Rameshwar Oraon as its new PCC chief.
The Congress, which had allied the RJD in 2014 assembly, elections, has eight seats in the current House.
Two of the MLAs, Sukhdeo Bhagat and Manoj Yadav, recently joined the BJP-fold.