Ranchi: RJD on Wednesday dropped the idea of returning to the mahagathbandhan and nominated candidates, one of whom is from Bihar and nominated by party chief Lalu Prasad’s wife, Rabri Devi, for Chatra and Palamu . On Sunday, RJD had walked out of the mahagathbandhan after it was allotted one seat instead of two demanded by it.RJD central spokesperson Kailash Yadav said Sanjay Yadav, a sand trader who is close to Lalu’s family, and Ghuran Ram will fight for Chatra and Palamu. He added, “Both are deserving candidates who have been with out party for a long time.” With RJD’s exit the mahagathbandhan will have now Congress JMM and JVM-P as its constituent partners.“Now that we have named our candidates for Chatra and Palamu, our negotiations with the mahagathbandhan are over,” state RJD president Gautam Sagar Rana said. Rana succeeded Annapurna Devi as state chief on Tuesday after the latter switched over to BJP. Devi is likely to fight from Koderma on a BJP ticket.The mahagathbandhan described naming of candidates for Chatra and Palamu by RJD as a kind of “pressure tactics”. When the mahagathbandhan was formed, RJD asked for three seats — Chatra, Palamu and Koderma, all lying close to south-eastern Bihar. Later, the Lalu-led party brought the number down to two following objections from other mahagathbandhan allies. The seat-sharing formula worked out by the mahagathbandhan gave seven of Jharkhand’s 14 Lok Sabha seats to Congress, four to JMM, two to JVM-P and one to RJD.Rana said, “We still appeal to the mahagathbandhan to Chatra for us. If this happens, we will support the mahagathbandhan in other seats.”Congress spokesperson Alok Dubey made it clear that the mahagathbandhan could not revise its seat-sharing arrangement. He said, “Congress will contest Chatra even if RJD fields a candidate there. At the same time, we will try to find a solution till the last moment.”JMM described the matter as a fight between Congress and RJD. Its spokesperson Vinod Pandey said, “The two parties have to sort out their differences.”

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