Ranchi: The rout of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in the recent Bihar Assembly polls has sent shockwaves across the border into Jharkhand, prompting the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) to publicly mull a review of its ruling alliance with the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
JMM General Secretary Vinod Pandey openly voiced the party’s deep frustration, stating that the RJD and Congress “did not coordinate with the JMM during the Bihar Assembly elections; both parties underestimated it.”
The immediate trigger for the rift was the complete snub faced by the JMM in Bihar. Despite being a key coalition partner, the RJD refused to concede a single seat to the JMM, a move the Congress remained silent on. The JMM was initially willing to contest on 16 seats, which it later reduced to 12, and then finally to six seats—all of which were ultimately denied by its allies. The party was consequently forced to withdraw from the election, citing a “political conspiracy.”
The Jharkhand Political Calculus
The move to review the alliance could potentially destabilize the government in Jharkhand, though the ruling coalition still commands a comfortable majority.
- The 81-member Jharkhand Assembly requires 41 seats for a majority.
- The current ruling coalition includes JMM (34 seats), Congress (16 seats), RJD (4 seats), and CPI(M-L) (2 seats), totaling 56 seats.
The JMM-led government currently includes Chief Minister Hemant Soren and four other JMM ministers. Congress has four ministers, and RJD has one minister, Sanjay Prasad Yadav. While the government would remain comfortably above the majority mark even if the four RJD seats were withdrawn (retaining 52 seats), any fracture with the larger Congress party could trigger significant political instability. The JMM’s win in the recent Ghatshila by-poll has seemingly bolstered the party’s confidence in its independent strength.
