The Congress Party can never learn from past mistakes nor does it try the tried and tested formulas for success. In the Lok Sabha elections, Congress fought together with the opposition parties and did not insist on contesting more seats, so it benefited. But then as soon as the assembly elections came, she forgot that formula and started insisting on contesting more seats. Due to this insistence, the matter of Jharkhand got entangled. Although finally the formula has been reached between all the parties of the alliance and the remaining seats will also be discussed, but the distribution of seats remained stuck due to Congress for several days after the start of the first phase of nominations. The state’s main regional party, which is leading the alliance, is JMM, which has told the Congress that since the RJD is its all-India ally, the Congress should give seats to it from its quota. But Congress only coordinated with JMM and left RJD.
Congress and JMM held a joint press conference, which enraged RJD leaders. It is true that RJD no longer has any significant presence in Jharkhand but it was needed for messaging. Not only this, Congress and JMM leaders did not feel the need to call CPI(ML) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya and talk to him. Think, CPI(ML) has won 12 assembly seats in Bihar and has a strong influence on at least half a dozen seats in Jharkhand. It has vote base and cadre on all the remaining seats. Earlier it was being said that Congress would give seats from its quota to RJD and JMM would give seats from its quota to CPI(ML). But this formula also did not work out. The result was that there was a delay in seat distribution and announcement of candidates and there remained confusion till the end among the workers of all the parties at the grassroots level. On the contrary, BJP decided the alliance earlier and also announced the candidates earlier.