The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) will contest all the 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand on its own, and will project Shibu Soren as its chief ministerial candidate, party general secretary Mohan Karmakar said on Sunday. Meanwhile in Patna, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan said AICC president Sonia Gandhi should “intervene” and pave the path for a secular alliance with the RJD-LJP front, JMM and Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha. The Assembly polls are set to begin on November 27.

With the Congress decision on a poll understanding in Jharkhand pending, Paswan asked Sonia to agree to the alliance to keep communal forces at bay. “The Congress president should intervene and bring together all like-minded parties,” he told reporters in Patna, adding he would himself discuss the issue with state-level Congress leaders and in-charge of its state affairs as well as with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Soren and Marandi.

Paswan has called a meeting of senior LJP leaders in New Delhi on November 30 to discuss the strategy for Jharkhand polls. Refusing to specify the seats his party wanted to contest, he said the issue would be discussed between the leaders of the RJD-LJP front.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha announced in Jamshedpur that it would contest all the seats on its own and that Soren was their undisputed chief ministerial candidate. However, he did not ruled out the possibility of a post-poll alliance.

In Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress said it would contest in Jharkhand, encouraged by its success in the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly elections, where it won five seats. Trinamool leader Mukul Roy said they were ready for seat-sharing with parties like the Congress and JMM.

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