After Tejashwi-Soren talks, RJD to settle for 8 seats

RANCHI: RJD is likely to settle for eight seats in the Jharkhand elections , party insiders said, though RJD reportedly held on to its initial demand of over a dozen seats at a meeting between Jharkhand CM and JMM working president Hemant Soren and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday. A senior RJD functionary said on condition of anonymity, "JMM has offered us seven seats. We have asked for nine seats and we are hopeful that we will settle at eight."

Soren and Tejashwi met twice on Monday over seat-sharing to iron out differences. CPI-ML, also an INDIA bloc constituent, demanded at least five seats. Other Left parties, CPI and CPM, said they would fight independently after they were not invited to the talks.

Tejashwi met Soren at the latter's residence along with CPI-ML leaders on Monday morning. Later in the evening, Tejashwi had a one-on-one meeting with Soren. The former Bihar deputy CM has met Hemant five times over the past four days beginning Friday. RJD has termed the JMM and Congress' decision to fight on 70 out of 81 seats and leave 11 for the rest of the bloc parties as "unfair" and has threatened to go solo in at least 19 seats.

JMM spokesperson Vinod Kumar Pandey said, "We are equally eager for a closure and declare our candidates at the earliest." However, no announcement was made till late on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, sources in the Congress said the party is likely to announce its candidates on Tuesday. On Monday evening, AICC convened its parliamentary board meeting to finalise names.

The Jharkhand unit of Congress has virtually shifted to Delhi as several ticket claimants as well as state party office bearers have been camping in the national capital since the last couple of days amid lack of clarity over seat-sharing with alliance partners and delay in declaration of candidate list.