Ranchi, March 7
With senior leader Hemlal Murmu from the party resigning on Friday, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has gained a Youth Congress member but lost a sitting MP and MLA over the last three days.
The JMM inducted Vijay Hansda, son of late Congress leader Thomas Hansda on Wednesday with the intention of giving him the ticket for Rajmahal Lok Sabha seat, won twice by his father. The Congress protested, with Pradesh President Sukhdeo Bhagat meeting chief minister Hemant Soren the same day.
Worse was to come, with JMM's Barhait MLA Hemlal Murmu - who won from Rajmahal in 2004 - resigning from the party on Friday. He is reportedly in talks with the BJP. "I have not decided yet as to whether I should contest or which party to join. I will be talking to my supporters in the next few days to decide my future," he said over phone. Murmu, a minister in the 2010-'13 Arjun Munda cabinet, has been unhappy ever since CM Soren refused to induct him in his council of ministers.
On Thursday, outgoing Palamu MP Kameshwar Baitha left the JMM to join the BJP. Baitha, a former Maoist who had the most number of cases in the 15th Lok Sabha, tried to claim that he had left on his own despite the JMM sending out unambiguous signals that it did not want him around anymore. "I have come to the BJP after serious thought. There is a wave in favour of the party and I want to work for it and Narendra Modi. This is not for a seat; I will be here even if they do not give me one," he said.
The BJP is likely to field former state DGP V.D. Ram from SC-reserved Palamu. The JMM will not contest from the constituency this time, with the seat going over to the Congress - or even the RJD - according to the UPA's seat-sharing arrangement.
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