RJD skips Grand Alliance's seat-sharing announcement in Jharkhand

Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], Mar 24 (ANI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday stayed away from the press conference called by the leaders of ‘Mahagathbandhan’ to announce candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha seats in the state where 14 seats are at stake.
According to sources, the RJD is not happy after the party’s demand for two seats was turned down by the Mahagathbandhan.
The grand alliance in Jharkhand consists of Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) and the RJD.
As per the seat sharing arrangement, Congress will contest seven seats while JMM will fight four seats. JVM will contest two seats and RJD one seat.
No leader from the RJD was present at the conference. Sources said the RJD is demanding two seats—Palamu and Chatra. After the announcement of seat-sharing, RJD leaders said that they would contest all 14 seats in the state.
The Congress will contest from Ranchi, Khunti, Lohardaga, West Singhbhum, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, and Chatra while JMM will contest from Dumka, Rajmahal, Giridih, and Jamshedpur.
The JVM will contest Kodarma, and Godda. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has agreed to leave Palamu seat for the RJD.
The press conference held at the residence of JMM supremo Shibu Soren was attended by JPCC president Dr Ajay Kumar, Congress legislature party leader Aalamgir Aalam, executive president of JMM Hemant Soren, senior JMM legislator Champai Soren and Congress leader Subodhkant Sahai.
Left parties like CPI, CPI-ML, and CPM have already announced to contest the polls on their own.
“We tried to bring together Left parties but they are not agreeing to contest one seat. Mahagathbandhan has agreed to field one Muslim candidate for the Rajya Sabha election, which will be held in 2020,” said Dr Ajay Kumar.
The grand alliance has also decided that if a rebel candidate from any party contests on his own, then the party will suspend the candidate immediately.
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has already decided to give 13 seats to the BJP and one to All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU). The BJP has also announced 10 candidates.
Jharkhand will go to the polls in four phases on April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, for 14 constituencies.
The 17th Lok Sabha election will be held in seven phases beginning April 11. The final phase of voting will take place on May 19. The counting of votes will be done on May 23. (ANI)