Jharkhand Elections 2024: Congress talks tough, rules out friendly fights as RJD demands more seats

The Congress has been at odds with the RJD and Left parties which claim they have not been given a fair share of seats for the Jharkhand elections. (File Photo: PTI)

A day after the Congress released its first list of candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly elections, the party said that friendly contests with allies in some seats will prove detrimental to the alliance and called upon partners Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Rashtriya Janata Dal to make sacrifices to ensure the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

On Monday evening, Congress released its first list of 21 candidates – Congress is expected to contest 30 seats and the JMM in 42 – for the Jharkhand elections. The INDIA bloc of JMM, Congress, RJD and the CPI(ML) are contesting the elections jointly.

However, the seat-sharing talks hit a hiccup as the RJD demanded 12-13 seats as part of the alliance and even threatened to contest alone. The RJD has been offered 5-6 seats while the CPI(ML) is expected to field candidates in 3-4 seats.

“Happy toh koi nahin hota hai seat-sharing mein (Seat-sharing leaves no one happy). But ultimately, if we have to fight a contest together, everybody has to make sacrifices and suffer some losses. We have to look at the larger picture and the larger goal, which is to defeat the BJP,” Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Congress MLA from Jammu and Kashmir and party in-charge for Jharkhand elections told The Indian Express.

In the Assembly elections held in 2019, the JMM bagged 30 of the 81 seats, the Congress 10 while the RJD was restricted to a solitary win out of the seven seats it contested.

This time though, the Congress says it is unwilling to cede more space to the RJD within the alliance.

“The RJD contested seven seats last time. Their winning percentage last time was 16%; of the seven seats, they won only one. The JMM had a winning ratio of 74% while the Congress strike rate was 55%. Their (RJD) winning rate was less and if they take more seats and win less, it means we are giving them on a platter to the other side,” Mir said.

While the alliance in the previous elections included the JMM, Congress and the RJD, the entry of the CPI(ML) has led to the requirement of certain adjustments. Elections in Jharkhand are scheduled to be held in two phases on November 13 and November 20 while the results will be declared on November 23.