Ranchi: Congress is expected to announce the seat-sharing deal for its mahagathbandhan with JMM, JVM-P and Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD ) on Saturday evening. The announcement will come after a meeting between Congress president Rahul Gandhi and JMM working president Hemant Soren at Gandhi’s residence in the afternoon.Soren, who flew to New Delhi on Thursday evening, met Congress party’s Jharkhand in-charge RPN Singh, his deputy Umang Singhar, Jharkhand Congress chief Ajoy Kumar and Congress legislative party leader Alamgir Alam on Friday evening.Neither Congress nor JMM officially revealed what transpired on the ongoing differences between the parties over a seat-sharing formula. In the evening, Soren met CPI national secretary D Raja and raised the pitch that Left parties should be included in the alliance “because of their stronghold in specific pockets”.“Congress, as the leading partner in the alliance, should definitely consider all possible ways in including everyone in this combined fight against BJP both at the Centre and in the state,” Raja and Soren were quoted as saying in a Tweet from the latter’s official handle.Congress sources said in Friday’s meeting, JMM was asked to pick one between Khunti and Jamshedpur parliamentary seats. Kumar is eyeing Jamshedpur seat because of his victory in parliamentary bye-poll on a JVM-P ticket in 2011 while JMM has staked claim to the constituency based on its organizational strength in Kolhan division and the seat earlier being represented by Sunil Mahto in the 14th Lok Sabha.“All the differences have been sorted out. We have left it to JMM to decide between Jamshedpur and Khunti,” a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity from New Delhi.Congress is eyeing seven seats while JMM is eyeing four seats. JVM-P and RJD is likely to contest in two and one seats respectively.Announced on January 17, the alliance has since struggled to hit the road due fallouts between the allies over a seat-sharing formula. A side meeting between Soren and Gandhi in February irked JVM-P and RJD, which drove hard bargain for seats of their choices. Then, Congress and JVM-P were pitted against each other for Godda seat while RJD came out in open, stating that it was unhappy for not being given Palamu and Koderma seats.

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