JMM meeting on Prez nominee inconclusive 

Ranchi, June 25: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren will soon visit New Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discuss “certain grievances” as the JMM meeting called to decide on a presidential candidate remained inconclusive on Saturday, party sources said.

The development comes in the backdrop of NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu calling up Soren to seek JMM’s support in the July 18 polls.

The meeting of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) parliamentarians and legislators was held at the chief minister’s residence under the chairmanship of party supremo Shibu Soren.

But no decision on supporting a candidate was taken in the meeting.

“The chief minister will soon visit New Delhi and meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah. We have some grievances that will be discussed with him. Then, we will take decision on supporting a presidential candidate,” JMM MLA Nalin Soren told reporters after the meeting. 

Party spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said various issues including the presidential election and the political situation in the country were discussed during the meeting.

“The decision regarding supporting a presidential candidate has not been taken yet. When the time comes, we will declare it,” Bhattacharya said.

A senior JMM leader, on condition of anonymity, said it will be difficult for JMM to ignore Murmu as she shares a “personal connection” with the Soren family and is a prominent tribal leader. BJD has already declared its support for the NDA candidate.

Murmu has been twice (2000 and 2009) elected from Rairangpur seat in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district on BJP tickets. In 2015, she was sworn in as the first woman governor of Jharkhand.

For the presidential election, she filed her nomination papers on Friday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of union ministers, MPs and chief ministers.

The opposition has named former union minister Yashwant Sinha as its joint candidate for the presidential election scheduled on July 18.

With BJD, offering support to Droupadi Murmu as well as YSR Congress, Murmu has votes with a value of at least 6.17 lakh in an electoral college of 10.86 lakh, which is comfortably above the majority mark by at least 74,000. Sinha could get 4.37 lakh votes. JMM being a tribal party cannot afford to draw ire of tribals with Droupadi Murmu being a Santhal tribal from neighbouring Mayurbhanj district of Odisha.