The Mahagathbandhan has left one seat to RJD in Jharkhand.
A day after the announcement of Lok Sabha seat-sharing between 'Mahagathbandhan' partners in Jharkhand, Annapurna Devi, the state unit president of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), is set to resign and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) in Jharkhand on Sunday announced the seat-sharing arrangement among the Congress, the JMM, the JVM (Prajatantrik) and the RJD for 14 Lok Sabha seats. The RJD was given one seat to contest while Congress, JMM, JVM got seven, four and two seats respectively.
On Monday, RJD's Jharkhand president Annapurna Devi left Ranchi for Delhi where she is likely to join the BJP. She was suspended by the RJD after she met Chief Minister Raghubar Das and other BJP leaders late last night.
According to sources, she could be made BJP candidate from Chatra or Koderma.
Annapurna Devi had been unhappy with the RJD leadership for not getting support for proper representation in the Jharkhand 'Mahagathbandhan'. She had also kept her phones switched off for the last few days.
For the BJP, entry of a Yadav leader could be a huge gain. The party had been looking for a face from the community. The BJP government has one Yadav minister - Neera Yada who is also for Koderma and had defeated Annapurna in the Assembly elections - but she has failed to help the party much.
Annapurna had met CM Raghubar Das at his residence last night. State BJP president Laxman Gilua and General Secretary in charge Bhupender Yadav was also present in the meeting.
Another senior leader of the RJD - Jharkhand unit general secretary Sanjay Singh Yadav - had yesterday said that the party would not accept the arrangement. The RJD has been given Palamau seat while the party leaders had been also asking for Palamau.
"Our stand is clear. We will contest from Palamau and Chatra. If not given that, we will decide to field candidates in other seats," Yadav was quoted as saying by PTI. He added that the Congress, the JMM and the JVM announced the arrangement "unilaterally without RJD's consent".
As per the seat-sharing deal, the Congress will contest from Ranchi, Khunti (ST), Lohardaga (ST), Singhbhum (ST), Hazaribagh, Dhanbad and Chatra seats, while the JMM will field candidates from Dumka (ST), Rajmahal (ST), Giridih and Jamshedpur and JVM will contest from Godda and Koderma seats.
The BJP has entered into an alliance with AJSU which will contest one seat while the ruling party will contest other 13 seats.
Polling is due in Jharkhand in four phases from April 29.
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