Given the current patch of identity crisis the Congress is going through, even the small regional parties like Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have resorted to arm-twisting it on seat sharing for the five-phased assembly elections beginning November 25.
Party sources said the JMM has told Congress that if the elections are to be fought in alliance then it will fight on 40 seats and it is for Congress to share the rest of the 41 seats with other possible alliance partners such as RJD and JDU.
Jharkhand has 81 assembly seats, which leaves little manoeuvrability space for the Congress if it wants to stop a resurgent BJP by pooling in all resources through a grand alliance of regional parties.
The RJD that had won five seats in 2009 elections has already put a demand of 17 seats, while the JDU that had won two seats is yet to come up with its demand. If JMM sticks to its demand of 40 and the RJD does not climb down, the Congress may have to restrict itself to less than 25 seats to accommodate the other two alliance partners.
The recent by polls in Bihar, where the grand alliance of Congress, RJD and JDU managed to restrict BJP to 4 seats out of 10 in contention, adds to the Congress's dilemma – whether to bow to JMM's diktat and RJD's demand or take the risk to fight without their support.
The JMM, sources said, is weighing its argument on the last assembly election results, when it had emerged as the joint biggest party with BJP by grabbing 18 seats and the Congress had managed to come on the third spot with 14 seats.
Eager not to break the alliance, the Congress has called JMM for a meeting on Wednesday and Thursday to find an amicable formula to hopes floating to keep the BJP at bay, at least in Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, taking rather a bold step that may put it at cross with the ruling National Conference, the Congress on Wednesday declared 15 of its candidates for the first phase polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
It has decided to field former National Conference local leader Mohammed Yousuf Bhat from Ganderbal, a traditional seat of the Abdullah family since 1975. Bhat had quit the NC in April this year and was planning to fight as an independent but dramatically joined Congress just hours before filing his nomination from Ganderbal.
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