Ranchi, Mar 16 (PTI) The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Saturday said that the grand alliance in the state has been officially sealed for the Lok Sabha polls.
The JMM, along with the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Left Front and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) comprise the grand alliance in the eastern Indian state.
"The fight against @BJPIndia & BJP4Jharkhand in GeneralElections2019 is a momentous one and the future #Jharkhand depends on the combined #GrandAlliance which is now officially sealed," JMM working president Hemant Soren tweeted.
The former chief minister said he met Congress president Rahul Gandhi Saturday, following which the deal was clinched.
"Today morning I met @INCIndia President @RahulGandhi ji on presence of RPN Singhji and others. We had a fruitful discussions on the contours related to finalizing #GrandAlliance in #Jharkhand including accommodating Left parties in this fight (sic)," Soren tweeted.
The tweet, however, did not mention the number of seats to be contested by the grand alliance partners.
On Friday, CPI leader D Raja had approached Soren and urged him to make the Left party a part of the grand alliance and leave the Hazaribagh seat to it.
Soren, however, said the Left parties should leave the Koderma seat if the talks moved forward.
CPI(M) Jharkhand unit secretary G K Bakshi had told reporters in Dhanbad on March 13 that the Left Front decided to contest three seats - CPI(M) from Rajmahal (ST), CPI from Hazaribagh and CPI (ML-Liberation) from Kodarma.
On January 18, Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajoy Kumar said the JMM had agreed to fight the Lok Sabha elections under the Congress leadership and in return, the Congress will contest the Jharkhand Assembly elections under the JMM's leadership.
Jharkhand's 14 Lok Sabha seats will have elections in four phases.
