In what could come as a blow to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s desperate efforts for rapprochement with the Congress, a high-level committee of the ruling party at the Centre is set to recommend go-it-alone policy in the ensuing Assembly elections in Jharkhand.

The Screening Committee for Jharkhand, which was sent to the state recently by the party high command to get a sense of the political pulse, was also learnt to be against the removal of state PCC chief Pradeep Balmuchu ahead of the election, notwithstanding a concerted campaign against him by a section of senior party leaders who accuse him of being responsible for the party’s dismal show in the state in the last Lok Sabha elections and also for the defeat of some party candidates.

Senior Congress leaders, including Mukul Wasnik, Harikesh Bahadur, Shakeel Ahmed and Abdul Mannan, who had recently visited Jharkhand, were learnt to have “verbally” apprised Congress president Sonia Gandhi of their assessment of the political situation in the state. They are now in the process of finalising a written report on their visit.

Committee members told The Indian Express that their feedback from party workers and people in the state ruled out any alliance. “Ninety-nine per cent of the people there are against any alliance with the RJD or the JMM. But that is our assessment. The high command has to take a final call,” said a Screening Committee member.

The committee’s report could put paid to all efforts by the RJD supremo to build bridges with the Congress ahead of Assembly elections in Jharkhand, which is likely to go to polls in December. Lalu had recently called on the Congress president requesting her yet again to forge a secular alliance in the ensuing Jharkhand Assembly elections; he had got no assurance though.

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