Patna, Sept. 12: Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren today met chief minister Nitish Kumar at his 7 Circular Road residence ahead of Assembly elections in the state.

Last night, the former Jharkhand chief minister had also met RJD chief Lalu Prasad at his 10 Circular Road residence and discussed poll-related issues in the state.

The JMM has its support base in the state's bordering districts of Jamui and Banka, which have a sizeable tribal population.

In 2010, the JMM had contested the Assembly elections in 41 seats and won just one seat from Jamui in the form of Sumit Singh, son of former minister Narendra Singh who later joined the JDU and is now in Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS).

This time also, the JMM is planning to contest the election but in alliance.

Seat-sharing has already taken place as 100 seats each have been divided between the JDU and RJD while 40 seats have been given to the Congress. In the grand alliance, only three seats are left and the JMM is reportedly eyeing these three.

After meeting the chief minister, Soren said his party wanted to contribute towards stopping the BJP from coming to power and for this they are willing to extend their support to the grand alliance.

However, asked about seat-sharing talks, Soren said: "It is up to the RJD and JDU to decide as I have only come here to extend my support. Whatever they decide, I will pass the message on to Guru ji (Shibu Soren)"

Political observers said the JMM was not a big player and it would hardly make any difference to Bihar's politics. But since it has contested the election earlier, the party just wants to register its presence in Bihar considering the tribal population in the bordering districts.

When the JMM had contested in 2010, the vote percentage on the seats contested was just 3.5 per cent with a total of 1,76,400 votes in their kitty.