Nov. 1: Even as the Congress succeeded in bringing Jharkhand Vikas Manch (JVM) chief Babulal Marandi on the negotiating table to stitch a pre-poll tie-up, the deadlock continued to haunt the two with the tribal leader asking for 32 seats to contest. He is being offered not more than 25 of the total 81 seats in the state Assembly.
Mr Marandi, the lone MP of his party, who is supporting the UPA government at the Centre from outside, met AICC incharge of the state K. Keshav Rao and party general secretary Mukul Wasnik on Sunday.He handed over the list of 32 Assembly segments from where he wants to put up his party candidates. As a part of the preliminary exercise, the tribal leader on Saturday also met Ahmad Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.Before leaving for Ranchi on Sunday afternoon, Mr Marandi said, "The Congress had approached me for an alliance with my party and I have submitted the list of seats we want to contest."Though, Mr Marandi refused to divulge the total number of seats, which he has asked from the Congress, sources close to him confirmed that JVM would not settle for less than 32 seats and this has been told to the Congress central leaders.Interestingly, the Congress, ahead of the state elections scheduled to be held in the last week of November and December, conducted a survey on the basis of which the party is of the view that JVM can not win more than 25 seats.Speaking to this newspaper a senior Congress leader from the state said, "Their demand is unrealistic and if we concede to what they have asked, we would be wasting about half a dozen seats in alliance."More than the number of seats, there is another dimension to the deadlock, as Congress wants to confine Mr Marandi to Santhal Pargana, which has 18 Assembly segments.
MUKESH RANJANNew Delhi