All answers will be before you very soon, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren told reporters on Tuesday after Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s decision on Monday to field party women’s wing chief Mahua Manjhi in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections as the ruling alliance’s face from the state. The announcement came after JMM, who had named Shibu Soren as their Rajya Sabha candidate back in 2020, had entered into an “unwritten agreement” that the alliance would be fielding someone from the Congress this time around, a development that has left the grand old party fuming with rage.

Soren’s reply to reporters has added to the suspense in connection with future ties with their ally in the state even as several Congress leaders hit out at Soren and his party for not honouring their alliance. On Tuesday, AICC in-charge of Jharkhand, Avinash Pande expressed his disappointment over JMM not honouring its word when it came to naming a Congress candidate from Jharkhand.

“Neither they nor we can run the government on our own numbers. When a vehicle (Govt) moves, it’s important to hold each other’s hands and go ahead. We’ll discuss with our legislative party and leaders, we have a workshop tomorrow. We’ll see to it that the CM tells us the way forward,” Pande told reporters.

“JMM announced its candidate. We were of the view that all allies discuss and announce a name unanimously. They announced and they have numbers. Congress had said that this time, the candidate should be from Congress. That’s the truth”, Pande further added.

Incidentally, JMM’s announcement to field its own cadndiate for the polls to the Upper House came just a day after the Jharkhand CM met Congress president Sonia Gandhi. After his meeting with Gandhi on Sunday, Soren had declared that there were no differences between the allies.

Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur on Tuesday warned that the party doesn’t bow before any other party, while pointing at JMM’s rigidity as a sore point in their alliance. “We know how to speed up the state’s development. If someone says we’re bowing, we can do it for people of Jharkhand. Congress isn’t a party that bows before any other party. Alliance works only if everyone bows before each other, being rigid doesn’t help,” said Thakur.