By IANS,
Ranchi : New fronts and smaller parties may play spoilsport for the Congress and also the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jharkhand in the Lok Sabha elections.
By now it is well known that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) have formed an alliance and fielded candidates on 11 of the state’s 14 seats.
The combine has announced support in the other three seats for candidates not allied to the Congress or BJP.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) will contest from four seats. The Jharkhand Front, made up of four regional groups, has put up candidates in all 14 Lok Sabha seats.
“The RJD-LJP alliance will emerge as a strong front in the Lok Sabha election,” said Gautam Sagar Rana, the RJD state president.
The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) of former chief minister Babulal Marandi and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are contesting in all 14 seats.
The JVM-P is expected to give the Congress- and BJP-led fronts a tough fight in at least three-four seats.
The All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), a regional outfit, has fielded candidates on six Lok Sabha seats.
Marandi was first chief minister of the state and had quit the BJP in 2006 to form his own outfit.
Although JVM-P did not win any of the five Lok Sabha and assembly by-elections it has contested, it is positioning itself as an alternative to the coalitions of the Congress and BJP.
A furious BJP is dubbing Marandi a ‘vote katwa’ — one who has no chances of winning but who can undercut others.
In the 2004 general elections, the Congress won six seats, the Jharkand Mukti Morcha four, the RJD two and the BJP and CPI one seat each.