ranchi

Updated: Dec 25, 2018 13:00 IST

The state unit of Congress is non-committal in declaring a chief ministerial face of the work-in-progress grand alliance for the assembly elections scheduled in the state around six months after the Lok Sabha elections next year, saying the party can’t unilaterally declare a leader until all alliance parters meet and arrive at a consensus.

Addressing reporters at the party state headquarters on Monday, Jharkhand Congress chief Ajoy Kumar said sitting together and finalising a common minimum programme was more important issue at hand than declaring the CM face.

“I totally agree that the modalities of the alliance need to be thrashed out at the earliest. In order to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha and assembly elections, all constituents (of alliance) would sit together and thrash out the larger policies and programmes of the alliance. When we sit together, (CM) face of the alliance would also be discussed. We (Congress) can’t declare a CM face unilaterally,” Kumar said, refusing a direct answer to the JMM’s repeated demand of announcing former chief minister Hemant Soren as the leader of the alliance.

Kumar also underlined that the larger issues of the alliance is in the purview of president Rahul Gandhi and state in-charge RPN Singh and leaders would soon meet to thrash out the alliance.

JMM and Congress are the biggest constituents of the opposition’s grand alliance being proposed in the state, besides the Babulal Marandi-led JVM (P) and the RJD. Ever since the JMM, despite having more than double legislators than Congress, extended support to the latter’s candidate Dheeraj Sahu in Rajya Sabha election in March, the JMM has been demanding the Congress to make its stand official over the issue.

During the Rajya Sabha elections, the two parties had in principle agreed that the Congress would get lion’s share in seat-sharing of the 14 Lok Sabha seats, while the alliance would contest assembly election under the leadership of Hemant Soren.

Sources in Congress said a section in the party had always opposed the JMM’s demand to announce the leader of the alliance before the election. As efforts are on to cobble up the alliance in the state, the JMM and RJD extended support to the Jharkhand Party (JP) candidate instead of the Congress in Kolebira assembly bypoll on December 20 in which the Congress emerged victorious while JP candidate forfeited her deposit.

Congress insiders said the victory, close on the heels of victory in assembly elections in three states, has pumped up the party cadre and they are in no mood to take the ‘diktats’ of the JMM hands down.

“JMM working president Hemant Soren recently said that the PM candidate of the grand alliance should be declared after the election results, then why does he want a chief ministerial candidate before the elections in the state,” a senior member of the JPCC said.

Party chief Ajoy Kumar, however, played down the issue of lack of JMM support in the Kolebira bypoll and underlined that the larger contours of the alliance in the state are already clear.

“The alliance is very much in place. Even I am of the view that the modalities of the alliance should be sealed at the earliest so that things are clear beforehand to all. The larger contours of seat sharing are clear. Of the 14 Lok Sabha seats, there is glitch on only two or three seats. Similarly, there is no confusion on around 65 of the 81 assembly seats. We will sit together and clear things soon,” said Kumar.