Jamshedpur: Jharkhand Vikas Morcha president Babulal Marandi today scotched all possibilities of his party merging with the Congress before the Assembly elections. He said the party was preparing itself to contest on all 81 Assembly seats in the state.
Speaking to The Avenue Mail on Tuesday, Marandi said the party had no immediate plans to ally with the Congress or any other political party at present. Rather, the party was all set to contest the Assembly polls by drawing from its own strength, he said.
�It does not matter at all if five legislators of our party have joined the BJP. Those who were not loyal to the party have relinquished their posts and the party as well. Now the party is free of such elements. So the party is once again clean and free of anti-organization members. So it is also ready to contest the polls and give a full fight to the opponents in the polls,� said the former CM who said options would be kept open for the right decision in favour of the party and the state.
It may be mentioned here that senior Congress leader Furkan Ansari had met Marandi yesterday. Earlier, Rajya Sabha MP and former state Congress president Pradip Kumar Balmuchu had claimed that a new political arrangement will be seen in the state prior to the Assembly elections. Several possibilities are being considered as under discussion in the Congress, JVM, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and other parties of the state.
One possibility may be an alliance between Congress, JMM, JVM, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (U). But it is subject to the approval of JMM to the proposed projection of Marandi as the would-be CM. Another possibility is a merger of the JVM in the Congress. A third possibility is the alliance between the Congress and the JVM.
