Despite strong efforts by Congress to put up a candidate for Rajya Sabha elections, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday declared party leader Mahua Majhi as candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections in the state.
"We discussed names and finally Guruji (Shibu Soren) decided upon the name of Mahua Majhi to be our Rajya Sabha nominee," Hemant Soren said at a press conference at his residence.
JMM's move is seen as a setback for the Congress which wanted to put up its nominee as the joint candidate of the ruling coalition in the state. The Congress had conveyed to JMM that JMM Shibu Soren was elected to Rajya Sabha earlier.
Jharkhand Congress leaders said the JMM move "is contrary to what was discussed in Delhi" and the party's central leadership has been made aware of the situation.
"I think there is a contradiction between today's decision and the talks that happened in Delhi (between CM Hemant Soren and Sonia Gandhi),"Jharkhand Congress President Rajesh Thakur said.
"It's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's (JMM) decision. We've made our party high command aware of it. Our Jharkhand in-charge will come tomorrow and then we will tell what is our stand and what we'll do," he added.
JMM general secretary Supriya Bhattacharya said that the party was never willing to give this seat to Congress.
"We never said that we are giving the seat to them (Congress). We are 30 in number (in assembly), so naturally, it is our claim. For the last one month, I have been saying that the JMM will field its candidate. Scenarios always change in politics. We are with the alliance. So far Guruji (Shibu Soren) is concerned, he didn't go to RS unopposed. Congress fielded its own candidate last time. It had to be unopposed," Bhattacharya said.
Jharkhand BJP took a jibe at both Congress and JMM, who are partners in the ruling coalition in Jharkhand. "This is a new low for the Congress party. They are capitulating in front of a junior partner like JMM. They should withdraw the support, but it is up to them. It will be interesting to see what steps Congress is going to take," said BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo.
( With inputs from ANI )
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