Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Congress in talks with JMM, JVM to form grand alliance in Jharkhand

The Congress has started to revamp its poll strategy ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. After sending signals of the possible alliance in Madhya Pradesh to Mayawati’s BSP, the party has started talks with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha to form a grand alliance in the state to fight against BJP.

“We are in talks with JMM, we are in talks with JVM.  We would like a grand alliance in Jharkhand... with the JMM, JVM, RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and other like-minded parties. We are in talks with all political parties and those things needed to be firmed up,” AICC in-charge of Jharkhand RPN Singh said during an interview to PTI.

He said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi clearly told all the state units that the grand old party would be looking at alliances at state-level with like-minded parties to take on the BJP in 2019.

Singh, however, also said that while the party was trying to unite the regional parties against the BJP, it was preparing itself to go alone in the elections if alliance talks fail.

Citing the example of recent Rajya Sabha polls in Jharkhand where regional parties such as JMM, JVM, RJD and Communist party, had extended their support to the Congress candidate, Singh said the opposition was united to take on the BJP in the state.

 “We spoke to all and reached out to all. We had put up a candidate, even though we had just 7 MLAs. All parties jointly supported us and we managed to win the election against the BJP,” said Singh, who is also a Congress spokesperson.

He also said that the Congress was ready to play second fiddle to regional parties in the states where it was not the largest opposition party.

“Give and take will have to happen. We fought on lesser seats than our coalition partners where we were not the largest opposition party, while in states such as Madhya Pradesh we had got larger shares being the leading opposition party,” he added.

(With Inputs from agencies)