By IANS,
Ranchi : Votes polled in the five-phased Jharkhand assembly elections Nov 25-Dec 18 will be counted Wednesday but that hasn’t stopped the major political parties from claiming that they are sure to get the majority required to form the next government.
The two major alliances for whom the stakes are high are the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Congress-Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) combine.
The third alliance is between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Left parties. While the RJD has a minor presence in some parts of Jharkhand, the LJP has yet to make its presence felt.
The NDA, on its part, claims it will get absolute majority in the 81-member house. “The BJP alone will win more than 40 seats and the NDA will cross 45 seats,” Raghubar Das, state BJP president, told IANS.
“The NDA will form the government in the state,” he asserted.
Congress, on the other hand, also claims that its alliance will get majority.
“The Congress and JVM-P alliance will get the required majority. There is no question to sit in the opposition as we will get majority,” said Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu, Jharkhand Congress president.
The Congress, however, hasn’t entirely ruled out support from the JMM and RJD. Union Food Processing Minister and Congress Ranchi Lok Sabha MP Subodh Kant Sahay had termed the JMM and RJD as “natural allies” of the Congress.
The five-phase polls began Nov 25 and concluded Dec 18. A total 1,511 candidates were in the poll fray and apart from the three alliances, over a dozen parties fought the elections including the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU).
Political parties like the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Trinamool Congress are yet to open their account in the state.
JMM chief Shibu Soren also hopes his party will perform well and that he will head the new government. The party had fought all the 81 seats in the polls. “We will form the government,” Soren had said.
JMM leaders say their party will get more than 25 seats.
The AJSU, which played a key role in government formation in 2005, also hopes to improve its tally.
“I do not believe in number prediction as other parties are doing. Certainly we will improve our tally and our party position is stronger in many assembly seats,” said AJSU president Suddesh Mahto.
In 2005, AJSU had won two seats.
Political pundits say that if the NDA fails to get majority, then AJSU and JMM will play an important role in government formation. The RJD has already announced that it will lend support to a secular government.
In the 2005 assembly polls, the BJP and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) had won 30 and six seats respectively. The JMM had got 17, Congress nine and RJD seven seats.
The AJSU, Forward Bloc and the United Goan Democratic Party (UGDP) had won two seats each. The NCP, CPI-ML and Jharkhand Party of Enos Ekka had won one each while the remaining were bagged by independents.