Sonia, Rajnath

New Delhi/Ranchi, Nov. 4: The Congress has finally managed to convince Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) to enter into an alliance for the coming Assembly elections.

The JVM, which had refused to compromise on its demand for 31 of the 81 seats, has now settled for 26, although a few friendly fights cannot be ruled out in some constituencies, including Bokaro, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur (East) and Ranchi.

Although no official confirmation of the alliance was available till late in the night, sources said both sides had agreed to fight the election together, barring a few loose ends that were being tied up.

They said while the Congress wanted friendly fights to be restricted to two seats, one Bokaro and one in Dhanbad, Marandi reportedly faxed a list asking for friendly fights in nine seats. Congress leaders went into a huddle to study his proposal.

Although the late-night decision shocked Jharkhand Congress, central leaders were delighted to have Marandi, the one-time RSS darling, in their lap on a day when the BJP had lost its most valuable ally, JD(U), for the Jharkhand battle.

The Congress high command did not share state leaders’ perception that going alone was the best option. It was desperate to prevent the BJP from reversing the downslide in Jharkhand and hence the decision to bolster its own brittle forces.

The Congress had almost given up hope by afternoon, but the collapse of alliance gave it a new sense of purpose and the central leadership decided to revisit the issue again in the evening.

The initial offer of 25 seats given to the JVM was scaled up to 28 and the leaders made up their mind for a few friendly fights, too.

Party sources revealed that last night, the Congress’s Jharkhand in-charge K. Keshav Rao had detailed discussions with Marandi over the telephone. They spoke to each other today too. The two leaders agreed forging an electoral alliance was necessary for fighting “bigger challenges” ahead.

However, to hold their respective flocks together, friendly fights in certain areas, too, was a necessity.

Congress negotiators were under tremendous pressure from local leaders and workers who had been camping at the party headquarters for the last few days, pressing for the go-alone policy. But the overriding reason was to exploit the fragmented electoral scene to the Congress’s advantage by adding up whatever little was available in the political market.

A few seats were left for individual leaders who had their own pockets of influence; Sudesh Mahto for instance who has been given two seats.

While some ticket aspirants openly spoke against central leaders associated with the Jharkhand process at the party headquarters, others staged demonstrations at Rao’s residence.

Rao had refused to attend the central election committee meeting earlier in the day in protest against yesterday’s heckling amid allegations of money transactions for tickets.

Some Jharkhand leaders later tendered an apology to him and persuaded him to resume his work. AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik was also the target of workers’ ire.