Ranchi: Cracks have begun to widen in BJP-led NDA coalition in Jharkhand over distribution of Lok Sabha election tickets.Barely days after RJD’s state president Annapurna Devi switched over to BJP , after mahagathbandhan constituents alloted RJD only one ticket — instead of two ( Koderma and Chatra ) claimed by it — ticket-seekers within the saffron party have entered into negotiations with opposition parties over rumours that they may be ignored.Vikas Munda, a legislator of BJP’s ally Ajsu-P from Tamar, met JMM working president Hemant Soren in Ranchi on Wednesday. Suspended for speaking against party chief Sudesh Mahto in public late last year, Munda is likely to switch over to JMM after Lok Sabha polls.Tala Marandi, the sitting BJP MLA from Borio in Sahebganj, is also in touch with Soren and other senior JMM leaders. Marandi stepped down from BJP state president’s post in 2016 and had expressed his frustrations over the functioning of party’s state leadership in the past.Sources close to him said he was unhappy after he was deniedticket for contesting in Rajmahal parliamentary constituency. BJP picked Hemlal Murmu , a JMM turncoat who joined the BJP in 2014, for Rajmahal seat. JMM’s Vijay Kumar Hansdak is the outgoing Rajmahal MP.Giridih’s outgoing BJP MP Ravindra Kumar Pandey recently visited the AICC headquarters in New Delhi after BJP left the seat to Ajsu-P. “He contacted our senior leaders in New Delhi,” a Congress leader here said. Pandey’s associates said he is also talking to JMM leadership.Marandi could not be contacted over phone on Friday. “We have no information about him as of now,” state BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo told TOI. A senior JMM leader kept the guessing game going. “We will give clarity on the issue when the time comes,” he said.Even as BJP’s outgoing Ranchi MP Ramtahal Choudhary has come out in open, criticising his party for ‘dropping’ him, party’s state president Laxman Gilua on Friday reiterated that they will stick to the policy of not fielding candidates above the age of 75.Speaking to media on Friday afternoon, Gilua hinted that the BJP’s national election committee was reluctant about fielding its outgoing Koderma and Chatra MPs — Ravindra Rai and Sunil Singh — again due to their ‘poor performances’.

Stay updated with all the Latest Ranchi headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.