BJP, AJSU tie up for Jharkhand polls

The BJP has decided not to contest the November 25 Assembly polls in Jharkhand alone, and has formed an alliance with the All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU).

The BJP may go for another tie-up with a smaller party to strengthen its prospects on a couple of seats in the 14-year-old tribal dominated state that has acquired notoriety for throwing up unstable governments.

The party has agreed not to project a chief ministerial candidate and fight the polls on brand Modi which fetched them good results in Haryana and Maharashtra.

The BJP central leadership decided to fight the polls together with the AJSU despite reservations from state leaders, including former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, Raghubar Das and Ranchi MP Ram Tahal Chaudhary.

The party’s top brass felt that the AJSU would  add to its final tally taking into account that the regional party had won six seats in the last polls.

The BJP, however, did not have a truck with its splinter Jharkhand Mukti Morcha as its chief Babulal Marandi did not agree to one of its proposals. Marandi, as the BJP MLA, had become first chief minister of the state after it was bifurcated from Bihar in 2000.
Later, he defected to form his own outfit.

The BJP, which declared 63 candidates on Sunday, has spared eight seats for the AJSU out of the total 81 constituencies.

BJP general secretary in-charge of Jharkhkand, Bhupinder Yadav, told reporters that an AJSU delegation led by its chief Sudesh Mahto and Prakash Chaudhary met BJP president Amit Shah on Monday to clinch the tie-up recommended by party’s state unit.

“The BJP has decided to tie up with like-minded parties. Talks between AJSU and the state leadership were on and they have successfully concluded,” Yadav announced.
Of the eight seats, the BJP has agreed to allow the AJSU to retain six constituencies they had won in the last polls. The regional party has also been given the liberty to shortlist another two of their choice, Yadav stated. 

The remaining 10 seats will be declared soon as the party is in the process of getting on board another smaller party.

The constituencies AJSU would fight from are: Lohardagga, Jugsalai, Ramgarh, Silli, Chandankyari and Barkagaon. The party decided to give Silli to the AJSU despite opposition from Ranchi MP Ram Tahal Chaudhary since the constituency falls under his parliamentary seat.

BJP sources said Chaudhary was opposing the tie-up primarily because of this reason since he did not want an ally to intrude into his domain.

BJP leader Bhupinder Yadav claimed that the alliance will throw up new political force and give stable government as the people have decided to give absolute majority owing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s credibility and effective governance.