The Hindu : Congress, JMM arrive at poll pact

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 22, 2004

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National

Congress, JMM arrive at poll pact

By K.V. Prasad

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief, Shibu Soren, at her residence in New Delhi on Sunday. — PTI

NEW DELHI, MARCH 21. The Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Soren) finally arrived at an electoral understanding in Jharkhand with the JMM agreeing to contest three of the 14 Lok Sabha seats and engage in a "friendly contest" in two other seats.

The Congress would have to contest the rest of the seats along with the Communist Party of India and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. The talks between the Congress and the JMM were deadlocked for nearly a month with the former unwilling to concede the Koderma and Rajmahal seats, which the party had represented in the dissolved House. The State Congress chief, Thomas Hansda, had won from Rajmahal while Tilakdhari Singh won the Koderma seat in the 1999 elections. The CPI has already announced its candidate for Hazaribagh against the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha. After several rounds of discussion, the issue was clinched when the Congress agreed to the "friendly contest" formula. The three seats for the JMM are Jamshedpur, Giridih and Dumka, which was held by the JMM chief, Shibu Soren in the 13th Lok Sabha.

The announcement of the poll pact was made here jointly by Mr. Soren and the AICC general secretary, R.K. Dhawan, after their meeting with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, this afternoon.

Mr. Soren expressed satisfaction over the pact, which he said was aimed at defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the tribal-dominated State.

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