CPI Breaks Ties With India Alliance In Jharkhand, Fields Candidates In Four Seats

Party to contest elections independently after being denied a single seat in the alliance

The Communist Party of India (CPI) has severed its ties with the India Alliance in Jharkhand and has fielded its candidates in four constituencies – Chatra, Lohardaga, Palamu, and Dumka.

RANCHI – The state unit of the CPI has decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections independently after being denied even a single seat in the India Alliance.

According to an official letter released by the party, Abhay Bhuyan, Mahendra Oraon, Arjun Kumar, and Rajesh Kumar Kisku have been nominated as candidates for Palamu, Lohardaga, Chatra, and Dumka, respectively.

"We were part of the India Alliance earlier, but now we are contesting the elections independently in Jharkhand," said Pramod Kumar Pandey, a member of the party’s National Council.

The party had proposed to be given only the Hazaribagh seat under the alliance, but the proposal was not accepted.

CPI Secretary Mahendra Pathak and former MP Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Mehta stated, "The party will field its candidates on some more seats and will contest the elections alone."

The CPI had been claiming the Hazaribagh seat based on Bhuvneshwar Mehta’s victories in the 1991 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

However, this time, the Hazaribagh seat has been allocated to the Congress in the India Alliance, with Mandu area MLA Jaiprakash Bhai Patel being fielded as the candidate.

In the seat-sharing formula prepared by the alliance in the state, only CPI(ML) has been given one seat in Koderma, with MLA Vinod Singh from the Bagodar area being nominated as the candidate.