JMM names Ram as its RS candidate, stays silent on 2nd seat

Ranchi: JMM on Saturday named former minister and party’s central vice-president Baidhyanath Ram as its candidate for one of the two seats for the Rajya Sabha polls on June 18. It, however, didn’t clarify on its stand on the second seat, a day after it expressed dissatisfaction over ally Congress’ alleged move to arbitrarily name Pranav Jha as its candidate for one seat.At a meeting on Friday, JMM legislators unanimously demanded chief minister Hemant Soren to field party candidates on both the seats but left the final decision with him.Announcing the candidate on Saturday, JMM’s central general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said, “After analysing all the political situations, both short and long term, our leader (Hemant) has decided that former minister Baidhyanath Ram will be our candidate. He will file his nomination on Monday in presence of Hemant Soren ji. All our 34 MLAs will ensure his victory.”After leaving BJP, Ram joined JMM in 2019 and bagged the Latehar assembly seat in 2019. He, however, lost to BJP’s Prakash Ram in 2024 assembly poll narrowly. He is also the head of JMM’s Scheduled Caste Morcha and a political functionary from Palamu commissionary, where JMM is still to make enough inroads.On party’s stand on second seat, Bhattacharya said, “As I already said, our leader will take a call and we all will abide by his decision. Talks are still on and he (Hemant) will take an appropriate decision.”He, however, stated that with just six RS seats in Jharkhand and considering the number of MLAs in the assembly, the trend has been that any party could name only one candidate so far. None of the parties at present have sufficient numbers to win alone on both seats.Congress, on the other hand, reiterated that INDIA bloc will ensure the candidates’ victory and all alliance partners, mainly JMM, are on the same page. Speaking to reporters outside Hemant’s office, former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, one of the two observers appointed by Congress for RS polls, claimed, “We had a good meeting with CM just now. Both INDIA bloc candidates will win. There isn’t any misunderstanding between JMM and Congress.”BJP, on the other hand, are still to reveal their hand even though Gaurabh Vallabh, who joined the party after leaving Congress in 2024, turned up at the BJP office in the morning after taking nomination papers from the assembly. Vallabh is currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.Besides him, four others took nomination papers so far ahead of the last date for filing nominations on June 8. They included Parimal Nathwani, industrialist and an RS MP from Andhra Pradesh, whose present term is ending, JMM’s Ram and Jha from Congress, and one independent.In the 81-member assembly, JMM has 34 MLAs, Congress 16 and RJD 4 and the ruling coalition also has the support of 2 legislators from the Left, taking the tally to 56. The INDIA bloc is set to comfortably win both seats, if the entire flock remains intact. However, with BJP (21 MLAs) and Nathwani, who was a two-time MP from Jharkhand, jumping into fray, the contest is still wide open, with chances of possible horse-trading, political observers stated.