Soren holds the cards in hung Jharkhand House

Ranchi/ New Delhi: The Congress-led alliance was on Wednesday emerging as the largest political grouping in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly but a hung House seemed inevitable.

In trends available for the 81 seats, for which counting was on, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was ahead in 22 seats while the Congress and its partner, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik, were leading in 24 constituencies.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which was ahead in 18 seats, is likely to hold the key to government formation in the state, which has been under the president's rule for almost a year now.

The JMM has already put a rider for supporting any political alliance.

"We will support only those who will favour Shibu Soren (the JMM chief) as the new chief minister," JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya told IANS.

Others, including Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), were leading in 21 seats. The RJD alone was leading in seven seats and the Congress will need its support too for forming a government. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said in Patna that he would support a secular government. The leaders of Congress, JVM(P), RJD and JMM would sit together to explore the possibility of forming a government, he told PTI.

Wooing JMM

The Congress and the BJP were on Wednesday vying for the JMM's support. "It is high time that secular forces unite," said Union Food Processing Minister and Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay.

The BJP admitted the NDA would not be able to form the government on its own and said candidly that "no one is untouchable".

"No one is an untouchable for us. We are ready for an alliance government with the support of other parties," state BJP president Raghubar Das told IANS.

Asked about seeking or lending support to the JMM, Das said: "We are open for an alliance. What would be the form of alliance with any party would be decided after the final results."

In Delhi, BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar said the party's parliamentary board would meet in the evening to decide on its strategy.

Counting of votes polled in the five-phased Jharkhand assembly elections began Wednesday morning amid heavy security.

There are about 30,000 security forces and 5,200 officials at the 31 counting centres in the state.

The staggered polls to the 81-member Jharkhand assembly were held between November 25 and December 18. A total of 1,511 candidates were in the fray and a 58 percent voter turnout was recorded.

The vote count is finally expected to end President's rule in the state. President's rule was imposed on January 19 after then Chief minister Soren lost the Tamar assembly by-election.

Trends

• Geeta Koda, wife of former chief minster Madhu Koda, wins in Jagannathpur assembly constituency defeating her nearest rival, BJP leader Sonaram Birua. Geeta won by over 20,000 votes.
• Deepak Bira of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) wins Chaibasa seat by defeating Bagun Sumbrui of Congress by over 2,000 votes.
• Former minister Enos Ekka of the Jharkhand Party-Ekka defeated BJP’s Mahendra Bhagat by over 7,000 votes in Kolibera. Ekka is currently in jail in a disproportionate assets case.
• JMM’s Nalin Soren defeated Paritosh Soren of the JVM-P by 10,992 votes in Shikaripara.

(With inputs from IANS, PTI and CNN-IBN Correspondents)

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