Ranchi: CPI(ML-Liberation) on Wednesday claimed BJP's tying up with regional outfit AJSU party showed the national party is "short of confidence" about getting majority in the assembly polls.
"They have been claiming about a majority in Jharkhand. But alliance with regional party AJSU shows how confident they are!" party MLA Vinod Kumar Singh said when speaking on the alliance between the two parties.
"AJSU had been in all governments since the creation of Jharkhand. And now they aligned because they desire to be in power," he said.
AJSU party president Sudesh Mahto was in the first government led by Babulal Marandi and then he had been in three governments led by BJP leader Arjun Munda. Mahto, who had fought the 2000 assembly elections during undivided Bihar on United Goans Democratic Party, did not participate in the Madhu Koda-led government.
One of his party colleagues, Chandraprakash Choudhary, joined the government then and AJSU had not pressed for his disqualification under anti-defection law. "Both AJSU and BJP had been saying they would go alone. This is one of the examples of political opportunism," Jharkhand PCC General Secretary Alok Dubey said.
BJP struck alliance with AJSU, giving eight seats to the regional outfit. The tie-up came even though five-time MP Ramtahal Choudhary had protested alliance with AJSU and national vice president Raghuvar Das said earlier that the saffron party would contest all the 81 seats on its own.
