The Hindu : National : Congress begins work for Jharkhand elections

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Sunday, Dec 12, 2004

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National

Congress begins work for Jharkhand elections

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI, DEC. 11. The Congress has begun preparations for elections to the Jharkhand Assembly early next year by undertaking a `Janhit Parivartan Yatra' in various districts in the first phase of campaign. The polls assume significance, as it would be yet another battleground for the constituents of the United Progressive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Elections to the 81-member Assembly is due to be held before March next and would be conducted in the backdrop of the near clean sweep of the 14 Lok Sabha seats by the Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India combine.

The alliance bagged all but one seat in the April-May polls under the pact, which saw the JMM contest on five seats, including two friendly battles, while Congress, the RJD and the CPI contested the rest.

The coming elections would be the first time Jharkhand would vote for its own Assembly and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition Government has to counter anti-incumbency factor among others. The State was carved out from Bihar in 2001.

`Contest more seats'

Now with the Congress fortunes on the upswing, there is a feeling in the party that it should contest the maximum number of seats instead of allowing the JMM greater share in the Assembly, a formula that some JMM negotiators stated was agreed to by the Congress earlier. The pact came at a time when local leaders on both sides were not exactly happy to contest in association with each other, fearing that anti-Congress or anti-JMM feeling as the case may be, could result in losses for each side.

Although the JMM chief and Union Minister, Shibu Soren, nurses the ambition of heading the State Government, a section in the Congress feels that the party must weigh all options before projecting the leader of the alliance.

Non-tribal population

Arguments being advanced include that the JMM hold is restricted to some tribal pockets and not throughout the State and that there is dissidence within the JMM.

The Congress also does not want to lose out on the non-tribal population who are present in greater numbers. There is also a view that if the Congress concedes ground in Jharkhand to a regional party, it would have a long-term effect on the party's growth and in addition, it would lose an opportunity to head a Government in a State a privilege it does not have in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa.

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