To contest six seats independently in Bihar elections
Mail News Service
Patna/Ranchi, Oct 18: In a major political development ahead of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has announced that it will contest the elections independently, delivering a serious blow to the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan).
Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM Chief Hemant Soren declared that his party would field candidates on six Assembly seats in Bihar including Chakai, Dhamdha, Katoria, Manihari, Pirpainti and Jamui. The announcement came amid ongoing uncertainty and internal disagreements over seat-sharing within the Grand Alliance.
JMM’s Central General Secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya confirmed the decision, emphasizing that the announcement was made on an auspicious day, Dhanteras, associated with Goddess Lakshmi, and Pradosh Tithi, dedicated to Lord Mahadev.
Bhattacharya highlighted that while the JMM had always maintained a respectful alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Jharkhand, it had faced repeated neglect in Bihar. “In the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly elections, the RJD was allotted seven seats, and its lone winner, Satyanand Bhokta, was made a cabinet minister for five years. In 2024, the RJD received six seats, four of which it won, and again, one member was given a key ministerial post. We have always respected the RJD in Jharkhand. But in Bihar, we were consistently told to wait. The JMM can endure anything but not the compromise of self-respect,” Bhattacharya stated.
The JMM’s campaign in Bihar will be spearheaded by Hemant Soren himself, supported by a strong team of 20 senior party leaders, including Kalpana Soren, Basant Soren, Stephen Marandi, Mohammad Tajuddin, Uday Shankar Singh, Hemlal Murmu, Deepak Birua, Sudibya Kumar Sonu, Hafizul Ansari, MP Vijay Hansda, Supriyo Bhattacharya, Vinod Kumar Pandey, Abhishek Prasad Pintu, Fagu Besra, Pankaj Mishra and Sunil Srivastava.
The JMM’s decision to go solo added to the growing disarray within the Grand Alliance, which includes the RJD, Congress, Left parties and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). Unlike the NDA, which has finalized its seat-sharing agreement among the BJP, JDU, LJP (Ram Vilas), HAM, and RLSP, the Grand Alliance continued to struggle with internal conflicts.
Both the RJD and Congress have already declared candidates for multiple seats without coordination, leading to potential multi-cornered contests that could benefit the NDA.
Political analysts believed that JMM’s exit from the alliance might further weaken the opposition bloc in Bihar and could split votes in key constituencies, ultimately giving the NDA an electoral advantage in the upcoming polls.
