As the Rajya Sabha candidate from the JMM-Congress alliance in Jharkhand was expected to be from the Congress, the JMM’s decision to field its own candidate Mahua Maji whose name was announced by Chief Minister Hemant Soren has sparked rumblings within the Congress party unit of the state.
To take assessment of the JMM’s announcement, a decision will be made by Congress on Tuesday to draw out the response to their decision, and could send a firm message to the party’s alliance partner JMM who had refused to back the Congress candidate by fielding its own.
Earlier, it was expected that Congress would field a minority candidate for the RS berth who would also be backed by the JMM. But the JMM’s announcement of its candidate after the party’s Executive President Hemant Soren met Sonia Gandhi was taken in a bad taste by the state unit of the party. A party leader said, “strict action should be taken against the alliance partner and message should be sent that the grand old party will not bow down to any disrespect.”
Last time, Congress party had fielded Shahzada Anwar as its candidate but he could not win because of insufficient votes from the members of the legislative assembly of the state.
Addressing a press meet at his official residence, Soren said, “he zeroed in on Maji’s name after holding discussions with Sonia Gandhi, and his father, JMM supremo Shibu Soren.”